2011

South Sudan has sold its first oil this week,10 days after gaining independence and despite having yet to reach a deal with the north on the split of oil revenues.

South Sudan’s Nilepet has entered into joint venture with Swiss Glencore International. The move seeks to ensure that crude oil entitlements from Nilepet/ Republic of South Sudan , find a market in the international arena.

The GoSS oil minister says becasue of failing negaotiations, South Sudan considers other options including a pipeline either to Kenya or Uganda.

Two days before Sudan splits in two, negotiating teams have failed to agree how to divide the oil. The two sides remained “diametrically opposed” over oil. Negotiations will continue after South Sudan's independence.

Sudan’s oil revenues in the months of April and May 2011 exceeded one billion U.S. dollars.

According to UN envoy David Gressly, northern Sudan is not ready to absorb the shock of losing around $2-$3 billion oil revenue/year after independence of the south.

Omar al-Bashir, has threatened to shut off southern oil export unless the south continues to share revenues or pays a transit fee on every barrel exported. This is probably an “idle threat”, especially since the south has already agreed in principle to a transit fee.

The meeting mid-June to settle future arrangements for the sale of Southern Sudan’s oil after 9 July proved fruitless. The disagreements between north and south remain unresolved.

Southern Sudan will continue marketing its oil through the federal government after 9th July, until an agreement is reached between the two parties over usage of oil infrastructures in the north.

Offering grave signs that Sudan may slide back into war, the southern Sudanese military is repositioning its forces toward the country's tense north-south border, and it alleges that the north is building up its troops on the other side, according to internal U.N. documents obtained by McClatchy Newspapers.