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Sudan lifts the force majeure for oil exports to Port Sudan

According to a letter sighted by us on Monday, the Sudan lifted its near-one-year force majeure for the transportation of crude from South Sudan to an port on the Red Sea.

Khartoum declared force majeure last March after the main oil pipeline transporting South Sudanese oil through Sudan to be exported suffered stops linked to the problems caused by the war between Sudan’s army and insurgents Rapid Support Forces.

In a letter dated January 4 from Sudan's Ministry of Energy and Petroleum to South Sudan’s Energy Minister, Khartoum announced that it would lift the force majeure due to new security arrangements reached with Juba and BAPCO (the Sudanese firm that operates the pipeline) to ensure the safe flow of oil.

Sudan's Minister for Energy and Petroleum Mohiedienn Naiem Mohamed Saied wrote to South Sudanese Minister of Petroleum Puot Kang Chol, "We are lifting the force majeure."

A Sudanese official confirmed that the letter is authentic.

The Petrodar pipeline was built by a consortium that included China's CNPC, Sinopec, and Malaysia's Petronas. It runs for more than 1,500 kilometers (932 miles), from Melut Basin, in South Sudan Upper Nile State, to Port Sudan, on Sudan's Red Sea Coast.

A second pipeline transports oil from South Sudan’s Unity State to Port Sudan.

South Sudan exported about 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day through Sudan, according to a formula that was established in 2011 when South Sudan achieved independence from Khartoum.

Sudan's civil war erupted in April 2023, causing waves of violence between ethnic groups and the largest internal displacement crisis on earth.

(source: Reuters)