Sudan: Islamic Regime Launches Oil Exports - Inter Press Service
BASHAR, (Aug. 30) IPS - The Islamic regime in the Sudan
has begun to export crude oil despite threats by the rebel
Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) that it will
sabotage the 1,610-kilometer pipeline.
In a colorful ceremony to mark the occasion this week, Pres.
Omar Hassan al Bashir was present for the first
600,000-barrel consignment of crude oil to Singapore.
The next consignment, also 600,000 barrels, will be
exported to Korea and China.
The SPLA has threatened to disrupt the exports if the Islamic
government, which spends about $2.5 million a day on the
war in the south, uses the oil revenues to buy arms.
The rebels say that at least 75 percent of the oil revenues
should be invested in Southern Sudan's 10 states, but
Khartoum said the money will be distributed to all the
country's 26 states.
Al Bashir said his government has deployed militias, known
as the Popular Defense Force, to defend the pipeline from
any rebel attack.
Delegates from Chad, the Central African Republic (CAR),
Saudi Arabia and representatives from 30 Western
companies witnessed today's launch of the crude oil exports.
State-run Radio Omdurman today described the move to
export the oil as a victory for the Islamic regime, which
seized power in June 1989.
"We have defeated all the foreign enemies wishing to stop
the export of the oil. We must now defeat the internal enemy
who may try to halt the full utilization of the oil revenue," it
said.
Oil reserves discovered at Hegglie and Unity fields, both in
Southern Sudan, are estimated at 800 million barrels.
Official estimates say that added reserves are likely due to
exploration of new oil fields throughout the vast Northeast
African country.
Current production is estimated at 150,000 barrels per day
(bpd), a quantity representing five times the domestic
consumption of less than 30,000 bpd.
Sudan, which spends up to $40 million a year in oil imports,
said it will now divert those funds for development projects.
The marketing of the crude oil will be carried out by a
number of multinational companies based in Asia, according
to Hassan Mohamed Ali al Tom, a top official at the
Ministry of Energy and mining in the Sudanese capital of
Khartoum.
The current conflict in the Sudan, being championed by the
SPLA, erupted in May 1983 after Khartoum unilaterally
scrapped the autonomous government in the south.
Since then, more than 1.9 million people have died in the
south, which is peopled by non-Muslim Black Christians and
followers of traditional African religion who make up about
35 percent of Sudan's 30 million population.
The Southerners have been fighting, on and off, since 1955
for self-determination from the Arab Muslim north. |
