Both Sudan and South Sudan are heavily dependent on oil revenues
South Sudan has agreed a deal with Kenya to build an oil pipeline, potentially reducing its dependence on its northern neighbour Sudan.
It will link South Sudan's oil fields to the Kenyan port of Lamu and should be ready in a year, a minister said.
The move comes as South Sudan starts to shut down oil production after Sudan seized crude oil piped through its territory for export.
Since Sudan Sudan spilt from Sudan last July, relations have deteriorated.
The pipeline deal with Kenya would free landlocked South Sudan on its reliance on Sudan - Juba depends on oil for 98% of its budget.
Transit fees rowNo date has been set for the start of the project but Elizabeth James Bol, South Sudan's deputy minister for petroleum and mining, says it will be "as soon as possible".
She told the BBC she expected the pipeline to be completed in about 11 months - although expert analysts say such a pipeline would take at least three years and cost up to $4bn (£2.6bn).
"The pipeline will be developed through Kenyan territory and will be built and owned by South Sudan," said a statement from the Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who was in Juba for the signing of the deal late on Tuesday.
South Sudan and Sudan - who fought a decades-old bitter civil war - remain at loggerheads, especially over oil on which both countries depend almost entirely for their revenues.
The south has the bulk of the oil - but the north has the pipeline, refinery and the export terminal at Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
They have never agreed on the transit fees that Juba should pay Khartoum for pumping oil through its pipelines and using Sudan's oil export infrastructure.
President Salva Kiir of South Sudan has accused the Sudan government of illegally siphoning off $815m of its crude oil.
Khartoum has admitted to confiscating some for unpaid fees and last Friday South Sudan announced it was shutting down its oil production.
President Kiir said his nation would rather struggle for a bit than continue to hand over its oil revenues to the old enemies in Khartoum.
Talks over oil are due on Friday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
Correspondents say that there are also worries about the impact of the proposed pipeline on Lamu, which is one of East Africa's most beautiful and relatively unspoiled environments.
Sudan: A country divided
The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. South Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.
Sudan's arid north is mainly home to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in South Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own languages and traditional beliefs, alongside Christianity and Islam.
The health inequalities in Sudan are illustrated by infant mortality rates. In South Sudan, one in 10 children die before their first birthday. Whereas in the more developed northern states, such as Gezira and White Nile, half of those children would be expected to survive.
The gulf in water resources between north and south is stark. In Khartoum, River Nile, and Gezira states, two-thirds of people have access to piped drinking water and pit latrines. In the south, boreholes and unprotected wells are the main drinking sources. More than 80% of southerners have no toilet facilities whatsoever.
Throughout Sudan, access to primary school education is strongly linked to household earnings. In the poorest parts of the south, less than 1% of children finish primary school. Whereas in the wealthier north, up to 50% of children complete primary level education.
Conflict and poverty are the main causes of food insecurity in Sudan. The residents of war-affected Darfur and South Sudan are still greatly dependent on food aid. Far more than in northern states, which tend to be wealthier, more urbanised and less reliant on agriculture.
Sudan exports billions of dollars of oil per year. Southern states produce more than 80% of it, but receive only 50% of the revenue. The pipelines run north but the two sides have still not agreed how to share the oil wealth in the future.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-16720703
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