South Sudan says Sudan putting new block on oil sales

(Reuters) – Sudan has put a fresh obstacle in the way of allowing its land-locked southern neighbor to pipe its oil to the Red Sea, South Sudan’s president Salva Kiir said on Monday, dashing plans to re-start production after 11 months.

South Sudan took over the national oil company when it seceded last year but left the northern state with 25 percent of the oil fields which straddle their border as well as the sole pipeline to Port Sudan and the adjacent refinery.

In January South Sudan shut down its entire oil output of 350,000 barrels a day after tensions with Sudan over oil fees escalated but an agreement to re-open the export pipeline was announced in September.

But Kiir said on Monday Sudan had now put in place a new set of demands as a new condition for reopening the pipeline.

“It is an impossible mission which our brothers in the government in Khartoum would want us to undertake. Because of this Khartoum authorities have refused to accept passage of South Sudan oil through their territory to market,” he told a meeting of government officials in Juba which was attended by Reuters.

“We are a different country, SPLM-North is in a different country. You cannot imagine that a foreign army can cross to another country to go and conduct disarmament. That can’t be. It will not happen,” he said.

Kiir said he spoke to Sudan president Omar-al-Bashir two days ago by phone to restart border security talks.

“He (Bashir) assured me that he is going to direct the minister of defense to write now an invitation letter to our team in Juba so that they go to Khartoum to start negotiations,” he said.

“When we signed the cooperation agreement (in September) we thought it was going to be implemented unconditionally. Now it appears that we have to renegotiate its implementation again. We will do all that it takes to maintain peace between our two countries and avoid any return to war,” he added.