Joint negotiations between Khartoum and Juba started today in Khartoum to deepen joint petroleum cooperation, review technical and financial arrangements, enhance oil output, and the problems that confronted the execution of earlier agreements between the two nations in this respect.
A high-level delegation led by the Undersecretaries of the Ministries of Petroleum and Finance of the Republic of South Sudan, accompanied by a number of technicians, arrived to discuss and evaluate the previous agreement’s implementation in terms of financial and technical arrangements, as well as the challenges that accompanied its implementation, in order to establish a framework for renewing joint agreements in the field of petroleum.
Engineer Mohamed Abdullah, Sudan’s Minister of Energy and Petroleum, emphasized the significance of the discussions to extend agreements to transport and process South Sudan petroleum via Sudan’s facilities, pointing to prior agreements inked in 2012 and set to expire in March 2022.
He noted that prior accords encountered several problems, including political and technical ones, but that they were resolved in a cordial and fraternal way between the two brotherly peoples.
He expected the two parties to reach new agreements regarding the transportation and processing of South Sudan’s crude, because it is based on the experience of previous agreements and ways of implementing them and addressing challenges, emphasizing great concern with South Sudan’s oil production, which is dependent on Sudan’s facilities, and that Sudan’s facilities are also dependent on South Sudan’s oil in their operation, indicating common interests.
For his part, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Petroleum in South Sudan stated that they will discuss issues of mutual interest between the two countries, such as the oil agreement and economic issues, as well as the agreements signed in 2012, which is one of the pillars of both countries’ economies, because South Sudan and Sudan continue in their fruitful partnership.
He said that they had reached a point where the deal would expire in 2022 and that this arrangement was for three and a half years, after which the two nations would cooperate on oil production for another three years, expressing his joy at entering a new era.
As technical and financial sessions began, the discussions focused on the aspects of the new agreement.
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