The Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC) has warned that it will not accept responsibility for damages to oil facilities caused by shutting down deliveries of crude oil from South Sudan by the deadline of 7 August.

GNPOC operates a pump station in Heglig in South Kordofan State, from which inflows of crude oil from South Sudan are sent onward to the Red Sea coast. The company’s largest stakeholder is the China National Petroleum Corporation.

A letter in the name of the company president Dr. Zhang Pinxian, which has been made public, referred to an order from the Sudan Ministry of Petroleum to cease receiving deliveries from the South by 7 August.

The date was the 60 days’ deadline set by the Khartoum government after President Omar al-Bashir warned Juba against backing rebels in the border territories.

According to Pinxian, the deadline makes it impossible to implement a “safe shutdown plan” over 140 days. An ‘operational shutdown’ would still be possible within 10 days, however.

The company president stated that he would plan to execute the instruction of the Ministry on 7 August, but that “GNPOC shall not be held liable for any adverse consequences, damages and prejudice arising from the execution of the instruction of MOP (Ministry of Petroleum).”

Emi Suhardi Mohd Fadzil, president of Sudd Petroleum Operating Company (SPOC), followed this letter with a warning letter of his own on 10 July to the South Sudanese Minister of Petroleum Stephen Dhieu Dau.

Sudd Company, which operates a block adjoining that of GNPOC and uses the same main pipeline, noted that “the duration given to stop receipt of crude oil import from Block 5A is less than the time required by SPOC to effect shutdown safely.”

The company requested “urgent input” from the ministry on the matter.

Khartoum and Juba have yet to find a solution to the crisis, which comes just months after restarting production. South Sudan’s fields were closed from January 2012 until April 2013, when a deal on transit fees allowed the new country to resume exports.

According to state media in Khartoum, the African Union has asked Sudan to extend the deadline for the shutdown. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abu Bakr Saddiq was quoted as saying that the regional body presented a proposal that would "offer the two sides some time to find satisfactory solutions."

Reporting by Radio Tamazuj