The government of Khartoum is demanding unreasonable transit fees to South Sudan for exporting its oil though Sudan’s infrastructure.
Khartoum is asking South Sudan to pay 36 US dollars for every barrel of petrol exported through its pipeline while the standard price worldwide stands at 40 cents of dollar per barrel.Petroleum Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau said South Sudan proposed to pay Khartoum 74 cents of US dollars per barrel as transit fees, almost doubling the price Chad pays to Cameroon to export its oil.
He explained that the best two international practices that Sudan can learn from are the Chad-Cameroon pipeline and the second longest pipeline in the world, from Azerbaijan to Turkey through Georgia.
Mr Dhieu said Chad pays Cameroon 41 cents of US dollar per barrel and Azerbaijan pays Georgia and Turkey together 43 cents.
Mr Dhieu explained that South Sudan calculated the length of the two pipelines that transport the crude from Unity and Upper Nile oil fields to Port Sudan and came up with the 74 cents offer per barrel but Khartoum insists on 36 dollars.
The Undersecretary in the oil ministry said one barrel of Nile blend oil sells for 118 US dollars while the Dar blend goes for 106 dollars.