22August 2012, Sweetcrude, JUBA- SOUTH Sudan has confirmed that its oil would not be returning to the international market for months despite the interim deal reached with Sudan earlier this month allowing oil output to restart.
Deputy finance minister Marial Awou Yol told the media in Juba that South Sudan’s Dar Blend oil would not resume pumping until December and Nile Blend oil until June 2013.
Earlier this month, South Sudanese lead negotiator at the talks Pagan Amum had suggested Dar Blend output would resume in September and that pre-crisis production levels could be reached within a year.
The two states are due to resume African Union-mediated talks in Addis Ababa on Sunday that will move on to security issues in the wake of the interim four-year deal on transit fees inked on 6 August.
The landlocked South shut down its entire crude output in January in an argument with Khartoum over how much it should pay to export through Sudan, cutting off the lifeblood of both economies.
The interim agreement will enable the resumption exports, mostly to China, from two existing export lines, but both will take months to resume as they are said to have been flushed with water after the shutdown to avoid jelling and some wells were not closed properly.
