2011

China, a major buyer of oil from Sudan and South Sudan, urged the two governments on Tuesday to end a dispute over transit fees that led Sudan to halt the landlocked South's oil exports.

The Sudanese government on Tuesday appeared to reverse a decision it announced yesterday by which oil exports from South Sudan passing through the north’s pipelines would come to a halt.
The foreign ministry spokesperson Al-Obaid Marawih told reporters in Khartoum that South Sudan’s will still be able to export its oil through its territories until both countries reach an agreement on fees that should be assessed for using the pipelines and refineries.

Civil society leaders in South Sudan are closely watching a legal battle unfolding in Sweden, as prosecutors investigate an oil company accused of involvement in massive human rights abuses.

Sudan suspended South Sudanese oil exports through its territory owing to dispute over transfer fees, the former’s oil minister Ali Ahmad Osman announced.

The Sudanese government on Monday issued contradictory statements on whether it actually decided to stop South Sudan from exporting its oil through the pipelines that runs through the north into Port Sudan.

Sudan blocked oil exports from South Sudan via its pipelines and will only allow them to resume once a bilateral agreement has been reached on payment for the shipments, Sudanese Oil Minister Ali Ahmed Osman said.

Sudan is demanding $15 billion in compensation for lost oil revenues after South Sudan’s independence and doesn’t want the African Union to mediate negotiations with the south, said Pagan Amum, South Sudan’s chief negotiator.

The South Sudanese government has seized what had been Sudan's share of the south's oil production and has decided to build a new pipeline that would not cross through Sudanese territory, the latest sign that the two former war foes are unlikely to resolve by negotiation the issues created when South Sudan became an independent country this summer.

South Sudan has sold 33.4 million barrels of oil to international buyers at an estimated value of $3.2 billion, despite a deadlock in negotiations with the north on the industry, the oil ministry said.

South Sudan has proposed to offer north Sudan a "package" to resolve the deadlock in the ongoing post-independence negotiations on southern oil transportation, a senior member of the ruling party said.