South Sudan to engage Sudan on plans to boost oil output as export restarts

JUBA (AGENCIES) – South Sudan will resume talks with Sudan on ways to boost its oil output after Sudanese protesters ended a blockade that halted shipments of the south’s crude for several days, an official said.

Now the stoppages on Sudan’s Red Sea coast are “being resolved, we are going to resume the talks and see how we can increase crude production” from the current rate of 156,000 barrels per day, the undersecretary at South Sudan’s Petroleum Ministry, Awow Daniel Chuang, said by phone.

Demonstrators in eastern Sudan had been blocking port facilities since late last week, ostensibly to protest local components of a peace deal Sudan’s government is trying to enact with opposition movements nationwide.

The move threatened the economies of both landlocked South Sudan, whose oil is sent to world markets via its neighbor’s pipelines, and of fuel-importing Sudan, which receives transit fees.