Sudan’s Civil War Finally Takes a Toll on South Sudanese Crude Output

(File Image / Adobe)

By Macson Obojemuinmoin

Oil flows from South Sudan have finally been disrupted by the civil war ravaging Sudan, to the north of the border.

It has taken over 12 months, but it has finally happened. Until February 2024, despite the intense war in Sudan, noting had happened to the infrastructure which evacuated South Sudan’s over 150,000 Barrels Per Day of crude oil output.

Until then, liftings from the Bashayer terminal averaged ~ 152,000BOPD, which was around 22% higher than the 2022 average of 117,000BOPD, several reports say, some of them quoting Kpler, the intelligence firm.

But South Sudan’s output has been looking for the floor since early February 2024, when Sudan’s rival forces inflicted significant infrastructure damage across their country, including the main refinery and key export pipeline as well as water treatment plants and power stations

South Sudanese output crashed to 86,000BOPD in March 2024.

Sudan itself has turned to diesel imports since mid-March 2024, taking at least two cargoes from Russia.

Now that its evacuation route has been badly impacted, it will take a while for South Sudan to improve its crude oil production.

Peace talks between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been fighting since April 15 2023, are suspended. Their beef stems from disagreements over the country’s transitional future. Various peace efforts led by the regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), on the one hand, and the US and Saudi Arabia on the other, have largely failed to secure even a ceasefire.

Sudan’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, which operates under the de-facto government led by the SAF’s general Burhan, recently declared force majeure on crude oil exports, citing a “major rupture” in the export pipeline that links South Sudan’s ‘Dar Blend’ oilfields on Blocks 3 & 7 with the Bashayer-2 Marine Terminal at Port Sudan.

Located 70 kilometres north of Khartoum, the al-Jaili refinery is the only route for South Sudan’s oil exports to the global market through the Bashayer terminal on the Red Sea.

Source: https://africaoilgasreport.com/2024/06/in-the-news/sudans-civil-war-finally-takes-a-toll-on-south-sudanese-crude-output/