2011

A suspected Sudanese air strike on a refugee camp in South Sudan will not trigger a return to war but belligerent posturing on both sides will complicate and slow talks over oil transit fees and other sensitive disputes.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Mining in South Sudan will be marketing its own fuel, as opposed to having a crude marketing firm do it.

The Sudanese government blasted, on Thursday, November 17, what it claimed was a decision by South Sudan president Salva Kiir to confiscate shares of its state oil firm Sudapet.

The newly independent state of South Sudan managed to sell, via tender, a cargo of Nile Blend crude for December. It will load at the highest premium in at least four years and is fueled by fears of possible conflict with its northern neighbor.

South Sudan said it was offering its former civil war foe Khartoum oil at discounted prices and financial help if it gives up a claim to the disputed border region of Abyei.

Foreign minister Carl Bildt is not among the initial 40 people called answer questions about oil company Lundin Petroleum’s activities in the Sudan, as prosecutors in Sweden continued an investigation into the company's activities.

Instability in South Sudan’s oil-rich Unity state threatens the already fragile, newly independent country, the International Crisis Group has warned.

The ICG considers Unity a test case for the broad range of deferred internal issues that South Sudan has to deal with after six years of focusing on the peace deal that ended decades of civil war with the north and culminated in peaceful secession in July.

Three months after the south seceded, Sudan's economy is floundering, with rampant food inflation, lost oil revenue and costly military campaigns becoming a serious crisis for veteran president Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

Despite conflict over pipeline fees and speculation about alternative routes, South Sudan has exported 22 million barrels of oil via North Sudan since independence last July.

The Swedish oil company, Lundin Petroleum, which is involved in the oil find at Avaldsnes in the North Sea, has been accused of war crimes in Sudan. SV is now calling for the company to undergo a thorough investigation.