Petrodar Company expects to start oil production at Melut field in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State in the month of May, according to Sudan’s oil minister. This comes somewhat later than the resumption at the Unity State fields.

Minister of Petroleum Awad Ahmed al-Jaz told press in Khartoum that he met with the head of the company Azhari al-Jamil who told him that all the facilities are ready and tested for the company to start its production.

Petrodar is a consortium owned by China National Petroleum Corporation together with Malaysian and Sudanese state-owned firms. The company had pumped about 200,000 barrels per day in Upper Nile State before the shut-down last year.

In February 2012 the company announced that it would take “a minimum of 40 days to six months or possibly longer” to resume production because of the technical impact of the shutdown on wells and oil facilities.

South Sudan ordered companies to resume production over a month ago, on 14 March, after a breakthrough in security talks with Sudan hosted in the Ethiopian capital. The two sides signed an Implementation Matrix to serve as a timetable for withdrawing troops from the border and honouring earlier agreements.

The ‘matrix’ deal brought to life again the Addis Ababa accord signed in September, which had set the level of fees that South Sudan will have to pay to Sudan for export via Port Sudan. The new country will pay $6.50 per barrel exported via the Petrodar pipeline as a transportation fee, $1.60 per barrel as a processing fee, and $1.00 per barrel as a transit fee.   

The Sudanese oil minister pointed to the matrix deal with confidence in his remarks to the press yesterday, saying that the various coordination committees set up to enforce the Implementation Matrix will guarantee the flow of oil.

According to Petrodar Deputy Chairman Mahmoud Abulrahman, the company’s oil fields in South Sudan will produce about 200,000 barrels per day for export to international markets via Port Sudan. He pointed to the completion of preparations for the transit of the oil to a main station at Jebelein area.

Reporting by Radio Tamazuj.