Sunday, January 29, 2012

South Sudan shuts down more wells as crisis deal flops Africa Review -

Omar al Bashir, President of Sudan attends talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on January 27, 2012 hosted by an East African peace bloc to resolve an oil dispute with former foe South Sudan that is threatening fresh violence. A deal is yet to be struck. PHOTO | AFP |
By MACHEL AMOS in PalaugPosted Saturday, January 28 2012 at 14:29
Share This Story
Share

South Sudan oil operators closed more 242 oil wells Friday as the government announced it has unearthed further oil theft of more than 40,000 barrels per day.

This came as President Salva Kiir failed to agree a deal with Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir to unlock the impasse that has led to the on going shutdown.

The wells were closed in Palaug oil fields in the Upper Nile state which accounts for more than 60 per cent of the country's crude oil output.

Paluag has 600 oil wells and the 242 already shut down have halved the daily output of 250,000 barrels per day, officials said.

The field is held by Petrodar Oil Company, the biggest oil operator in the country.

However, Petroleum and Mining minister Stephen Dhieu Dau said his technicians had discovered that an additional 40,000 barrels were being produced per day on top of 230,000 daily barrels the company reported.

"After the resolution of shutdown, the company here tried to increase the production against what we are actually telling them to reduce to the minimum,” Mr Dhieu said, accusing former civil war Sudan of having a hand.

In the country’s Unity state, which officials now say accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the daily output, all the oil wells have been successfully closed down.

The Council of Ministers, in a sitting chaired by President Salva Kiir, resolved a week ago to shut down the oil pipeline to avoid continuous oil seizure by Sudan along the export route to Port Sudan.

No comments:

Post a Comment