South Sudan earns $1.9b from oil as output boost pledged

South Sudan; South Sudan said it earned $1.9 billion from oil sales in the 12 months through May as the country seeks to restore output lost in nearly six months of conflict.

The sale of 35.3 million barrels of crude brought total revenue of $3.5 billion, the Petroleum Ministry said in an e-mailed statement late yesterday.

Of that figure, $857 million was allocated to neighboring Sudan, which exports the oil via pipelines across its territory to a port on the Red Sea, and $788 million went to loan settlements, it said.

The ministry didn’t provide figures for the previous 12-month period when oil output was shut down due to a dispute over transit fees.

Petroleum Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau expressed “optimism” that “current operational challenges” to oil production will be resolved and output restored to its level in 2011, when the country declared independence from Sudan, according to the statement.

South Sudanese oil production has fallen by at least a third to about 160,000 barrels per day since fighting erupted in mid-December between factions loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar.

Oil facilities have been a key target for rebel forces, with Upper Nile the only state still pumping crude.

Last week, Finance Minister Aggrey Tisa Sabuni said the government has borrowed $200 million from oil companies operating in the country to make up for a fall in revenue.

Fighting in the world’s newest nation has left thousands of people dead and forced more than 1.3 million to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.

Clashes have continued in oil-rich Upper Nile and Unity states, even after Kiir and Machar signed a May 9 accord seeking to end the violence.

Under duress

President Kiir, upon arrival back to Juba, publicly disclosed that he signed the May 9 agreement in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, under duress, explaining that its prime minister, Hailemariam Desalegn threatened to arrest him should he fail to sign the deal.

However, while speaking to South Sudanese intellectuals in Nairobi last week, Machar described the statements by Kiir as unfortunate, saying they impacted negatively on the implementation of the roadmap agreement, which demanded immediate cessation of hostilities by the two warring parties.

He accused the South Sudan’s Government of violating the May 9 agreement shortly after signing by attacking territories under the rebels’ control.

“Salva Kiir’s statement was very unfortunate because who in his Government will commit to the roadmap agreement if the president said he was forced to sign the document,” Machar posed.

He said he was not aware of a situation in which the two leaders were forced by the Ethiopian authorities to sign the agreement.