South Sudan plans to shut oil production within 2 weeks

Reuters via Chicago Tribune ^ | 12:12 p.m. CST, January 20, 2012 | Hereward and Holland

[Pan_Yan]

JUBA (Reuters) - South Sudan said on Friday it was working out a plan to shut down oil production within two weeks after Sudan said it had started seizing southern oil to compensate for what it said were unpaid transit fees.

South Sudan seceded last July under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war between north and south, but the two have remained at loggerheads over oil, the disputed Abyei region and even the location of the border.

The two are locked in a row over sharing oil revenues after South Sudan took two-thirds of output when it became independent. Oil is the lifeline of both economies.

The landlocked new African nation needs to use a northern pipeline and the port of Port Sudan to export the crude but has failed to reach an agreement with Khartoum over a transit fee, prompting Sudan to seize part of its oil as compensation.

"The ministry of petroleum and mining will sit down to start a technical process that will lead to a decision that will lead to a complete shutdown. That will be in a week or two weeks," government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin told Reuters.

[Pan_Yan]

South Sudan is the third largest oil producer in Africa. That's another 400,000 barrels a day off the world market.

[doc1019]

Considering that much of our oil comes from Canada and Obama has pretty much shut that down, and now this. The plot thickens.

[himno hero]

Just wait ‘til Obama’s MB declare they control the mid east oil.

America needs to wake up. No energy means no economy and cold winters. The key today is shale, the gulf and Keystone.

Green energy is not feasible yet

[UnwashedPeasant]

Sudan can never be trusted. They should build a pipeline thru Kenya to the Sea. Kenya is only 11% Muslim.