2010

China is shifting ties of the Referendum, cozying up to the nation's separatist southern region. "Chinese officials in Juba and Beijing have made clear that they are willing to recognize an independent Southern Sudan, and that they will follow the lead of the African Union".

The Sudanese president Al-Bashir offered to let the South take the entire revenue from the southern oil wealth in return for a unity vote in the referendum.

Oil inflamed Sudan's civil war for decades but could now help seal the peace as the south becomes independent and needs the north to refine its crude. there's no other option but to continue -- in a form still open to negotiations -- the sharing of oil wealth even in a likely post-secession scenario.

Northern Sudanese working in the oil-producing south should not panic as the south’s referendum on independence approaches, region Vice President, Riek Machar told oil workers on December 6.

GoNU and GoSS should establish a fully-fledged audit system to cater for the oil industry’s socio-economic, environmental, and security impact after the south’s referendum on independence, a two-day oil conference resolved. It was also recommended that oil companies compensate communities for past and current injustices.

The SAF and the SPLA signed a framework agreement on securing oilfields and related infrastructure in the South. The JIUs will continue in accordance with the current security arrangements for the purposes of protecting the oilfields, companies and their employees as well as boosting the security situation in the region before and after the South Sudan referendum.

Sudan generated 357.36 million US dollars in oil revenues for the month of October 2010.

Sudan will add 30,000 barrels per day of crude with a new oilfield in the north, hiking its total production to 500,000 bpd, an official said. Sudan’s economy is heavily dependent on crude and the south — where most of the oil is located — is hurtling towards independence in a January 9 referendum on secession as part of a 2005 peace deal ending Africa’s longest north-south civil war.

The Sudanese government said the North is expected to boost its production of oil to 200,000 barrels per day within 3-5 years. The North will boost production in Block 6 and says it made a 'significant' discovery in Block 7.

A Chinese oil worker who was kidnapped in Sudan’s state of South Kordofan on November 26 was released the next day, according to the Chinese embassy in Khartoum.