South Sudan: Oil output rising as threat ends

South Sudan was producing 180 000 barrels of oil a day and planned to add 20 000 barrels a day after Sudan dropped a threat to close two cross-border export pipelines, the country’s oil ministry said yesterday. On Tuesday, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir told South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir that Khartoum would allow the landlocked nation to continue using its oil export facilities and Port Sudan. South Sudan’s petroleum ministry would increase output first to 200 000 barrels a day and then 250 000 barrels a day by year-end. Technical teams would lift output in the next two weeks, the ministry said. – Reuters