Sudan President Agreed to Keep Southerners at Oil Ministry

- Sudan President Agreed to Keep Southerners at Oil Ministry

Thursday, July 07, 2011
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

North Sudan president, Omer Al-Bashir, has agreed to retain South Sudanese employees at the country's federal ministry of petroleum for as long as the south's oil is being exported through the north, the country's federal minister of petroleum announced.

North and South Sudan have been evenly splitting proceeds of the country's oil wealth since 2005 when the two sides signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), ending nearly half a century of intermittent civil wars between them.

The South, whose oilfields produce most of the country's daily oil output of 500,000 barrels, is due to declare independence from the north on July 9 in line with the outcome of the CPA-mandated referendum on the region's independence which was held at the start of this year.

The north, however, owns the refinery and pipeline infrastructure necessary to transport the oil to export terminals, leaving the south with almost no other viable option but to maintain oil-cooperation with the north after independence.

Lual Achuek Deng, Sudan's federal minister of petroleum, announced that Al-Bashir had acquiesced to his request of exempting southern employees of the petroleum ministry from dismissal ahead of the south's independence.

Deng, who is a southerner and a member of South Sudan's ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), broke the news during a farewell party organized for him by the ministry's staff on Tuesday.

According to the outgoing minister, Al-Bashir had agreed that southern employees in the ministry should keep their positions for as long as the south's oil is being exported through the north and until a new oil-sharing deal is reached.

North and South Sudan have been engaged in talks with sluggish progress to strike a new oil-sharing deal, but the two parties failed to seal a news deal and talks will continue after the declaration of South Sudan.

The new deal will substitute the current 50-50 split with an arrangement whereby the south pays fees for using the service of the north's pipeline and refineries.

Deng, who was appointed to his position in 2010, is currently embroiled in a public dispute with the SPLM's secretary-general Pagan Amum who accused him of selling and giving half of South Sudan's oil revenues for the month of July to North Sudan in violation of the CPA which ends the current 50-50 split when the south secedes on July 9.

The minister defended himself against Amum's accusations, saying the July sale was approved by South Sudan's president Salva Kiir.

Copyright (c) 2011, Sudan Tribune

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