The President of Sudan, Omar Al Bashir, has said that negotiations over transit fees with the Republic of South Sudan (RoSS) must be completed by the end of October. In an interview with local newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat, Bashir said that transit fees for oil produced in the RoSS, which recently seceded from the rest of Sudan, were essential to closing a budget shortfall.
Since the RoSS secession, Sudan lost 75% of the oil production that had existed when the country was united. Up to that point, the country had been splitting oil revenues equally under a peace agreement signed in 2005. “The reality says that there are two neighboyring countries that have to coexist together. Oil which was part of the north must be compensated in the transitional period if a [budget] gap happens within the coming four years due to loss of oil,” said Bashir.
RoSS needs to export oil to reach the market, and at present is shipping it north through Sudan’s pipeline. The Sudanese Government is seeking to levy a charge of $32 per barrel on these exports, which the RoSS has rejected as "daylight robbery.”
Bashir, however, issued a vague warning that, should an agreement not be reached, his Government would look at other options to resolve the impasse. “We have given the Government of South Sudan a transitional period during which an agreement would be reached by the end of the month of October,” he said. “If we don’t reach a solution we have our options to resolve this issue.”
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