South Sudan Minister of Finance and Planning Dr. Marial Dongrin Ater on Monday announced the resumption of Dar Blend crude oil exports from Upper Nile State through Sudan to world markets.
South Sudan oil exports halted on 6 February 2024 after damage to the pipeline.
The Government of Sudan declared a force majeure on 16 March after operators of the Jabalayn-Port Sudan pipeline discovered gelling between Pump Stations 4 and 5, located in a military operation zone. The incident was noted by Sudanese authorities when an impeded flow was detected in mid-February.
There were also concerns earlier this year when Sudan’s main refinery, the 100,000 bpd Al-Jaili facility near Khartoum, was hit by shells in January and February.
“Significant progress has been made on the resumption of oil production from the Dar Blend in Upper Nile and we are optimistic for a breakthrough,” Dongrin said.
He said President Salva Kiir and Chairman of Sudan’s Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah Al Burhan discussed the resumption of oil exports through Sudan following four months of work on the oil infrastructure.
“Today, we received the President of Sudan, General Al Burhan and one of the issues discussed with our president is the issue of the resumption of Dar Blend. As I mentioned there is a breakthrough and it will come to the public very soon,” he said. “The production capacity will be picked up, you know that before it reaches maximum qualities supposed to be produced daily, it will pick up, maybe if it was producing a thousand per day, it would not start producing at maximum but those details will come from the Ministry of Petroleum.”
South Sudan relies on Sudan to export its crude, which travels through a pipeline to the Red Sea via Khartoum. Sudan and South Sudan’s export crude grades are the Nile and Dar Blend, which are mostly sold to Asian refiners in China, India, and Malaysia.
South Sudan, which relies on oil revenue for 95 percent of its national budget, has in the past accused Sudan of diverting crude to its inland refineries without consent.
In September, officials in South Sudan said they had bought land in the tiny coastal state of Djibouti to build a new export terminal. The world’s youngest country is also part of a long-delayed regional cargo transportation network starting in Lamu on the Kenyan coast.