Sapa-AFP Khartoum
Sudan had approved a law imposing fees on the south’s use of its oil infrastructure, in an effort to offset the loss of oil revenues following South Sudan’s secession on July 9, the finance minister said yesterday.
“We are imposing these fees to get back what we lost from oil revenues, and we will reach the figure with the south through negotiations,” Ali Mahmud said after the law was passed by parliament alongside a new, post-secession budget.
“They have no way to export their oil, except through the north,” the minister added.
On Wednesday, Mahmud said he expected Khartoum to receive about $2.6 billion (R18bn) from the oil-producing south in annual transit fees.
But negotiations on this, and other key outstanding issues that the north and south have failed to resolve, such as debt and borders, have yet to resume since they were suspended early this month.
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir said on Tuesday that his government accepted the proposal of renting the north’s oil infrastructure, but he hinted that Khartoum would have to make an acceptable offer or his country would pursue other export options.
“We have agreed on one thing, that the oil issue should not be disrupted. They (north Sudan) need oil. But we fought for 21 years without oil, and we can still go for three years until we build our own oil infrastructure,” Kiir said.
The secession of the south, where three-quarters of Sudan’s 470 000 barrels a day of oil is produced, has aggravated the mounting economic difficulties facing Khartoum, by cutting an estimated 36.5 percent off its total revenues.
Khartoum plans to launch a new currency on Sunday, after the south did so earlier this week, with the Sudanese pound having plunged in value over the past six months, mainly due to a rise in commodity prices and weak state finances.