Protect Oilfields.

Sudan’s Bashir calls for increased efforts to protect oilfields


February 14, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir has instructed the minister of oil Makkawi Mohamed Awad to double efforts to protect oilfields in coordination with oil producing stat

Awad said in press statements following his meeting with Bashir on Thursday that he briefed the president on his ministry’s efforts to increase oil production and solve problems with its partners.

The meeting came in wake of the minister’s inspection tour of oilfields in bloc 6 which falls under the concession of Petro-Energy Operating Company (PEOC) including fields of Baleela, Muga, Jeek, and Ki.

Awad stressed his ministry’s commitment to increasing oil production in order to compensate for oil loss which resulted from the secession of South Sudan through developing existing fields, adding new fields and intensifying exploration activities.

Sudan lost 75% of its oil reserves after the southern part of the country became an independent nation in July 2011 denying the north billions of dollars in revenues. Oil revenue constituted more than half of the Sudan’s revenue and 90% of its exports.

He called on PEOC to accelerate the pace of production particularly as the country depends on crude oil produced in bloc 6 to provide oil derivatives, pointing that his ministry raised the slogan of increasing productivity.

The cabinet economic development sector headed by the minister of finance, Badr al-Deen Mahmoud, has approved the oil ministry’s 2013 performance report which the minister submitted on Thursday.

The report indicates that oil reserves in Sudan have added 13.8 million barrels this year through nitrogen injection technology. It also shows the level of performance in refining oil crude in Khartoum and al-Obaid refineries have reached %89 while daily crude production reached %83.

Nitrogen injection is an Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technology that uses nitrogen as the gas to improve oil recovery.

The report mentioned some security constraints which participated to lowering performance of the two-dimensional seismic survey, affirming the three-dimensional seismic survey achieved % 93 performance rates.

Seismic surveys are used to locate and estimate the size of underground oil and gas reserves. Seismic images are produced by generating, recording and analyzing sound waves that travel through the Earth.

The report further pointed that the targeted performance rate for oil wells drilling was achieved.

The cabinet meeting praised the performance of oil ministry, stressing the need to intensify efforts to increase oil production as well as disposing of hazardous materials in coordination with the ministry of environment, forestry, and urban development.

Last September, the Sudanese government lifted fuel subsidies which almost doubled their prices leading to wide protests across the country.

A gallon of gasoline now costs 21 Sudanese pounds ($4.77 based on official exchange rate) compared to 12.5 pounds ($2.84).

Diesel also went from 8 pounds ($1.81) a gallon to 14 pounds ($3.18).

Cooking gas cylinders are now are priced at 25 pounds ($5.68) from 15 pounds ($3.40).

Sudan currently produces 133,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd). The country’s production is stationed mainly in Heglig area and its surroundings as well as western Kordofan.

Following secession of South Sudan, several foreign companies started exploration in new oil fields.

A Saudi company is working in Block 12 which is located in Sudan’s north-western corner near the borders with Libya, and a Canadian company shares exploration with the Sudanese company Sudapet in Block 14.

Sudan Energia is working in Block 18 which is located to the west of the river Nile. Block 11 is located in Kordofan, while Block 9 is located in the Gezira, Khartoum, and River Nile states.

Blocks 13 and 14 are on the coast of the Red sea, while Blocks 19, 22, 21 are inside the red sea. Block 10 is located between Kassala and Al-Gedaref states in eastern Sudan, and Block 8 is located in Sennar state.

(ST)

Interview!!!

INTERVIEW: Rebel leader rejects "partial" solutions to Sudan’s problems


February 13, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – The leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement Abdel-Wahid Mohamed Nur (SLM-AW) said that his group intends to vigorously defend the stance of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF) and to utilize all available platforms to push for a comprehensive solution to the existing conflicts in Sudan and repel what he described as attempts by some SRF members to accept partial accords.

One of the SLM-AW members by the name of Mohammed Abdullah al-Khatir is one of the experts accompanying the delegation of the Sudan People Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) to the new round of negotiations with the Sudanese government in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa which started Thursday.

Nur told Sudan Tribune today that they are eager to accomplish peace and put an end to the war’s ravages which affected ordinary citizens noting that over the past ten years they met with all regional and international officials who served as mediators in Darfur.

The rebel chief met this week with the African Union-United Nations Joint Special Representative/Joint Chief Mediator Mohamed Ibn Chambas in Kampala.

The UN official met with other Darfuri rebel leaders who did not sign the peace agreements with Khartoum including Minni Minnawi (SLA/MM) and the Justice and Gibril Ibrahim from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to follow-up on the outcomes of the technical workshop on peace and security in Darfur held in Addis Ababa last December.

“I am encouraged by my discussions with the movements and their positive but cautious consideration of the Government’s calls for reconciliation and national dialogue. As the Mediation we will engage with all the parties to turn these hopeful signs into concrete steps towards peace for Darfur and Sudan,” Chambas said in a press statement.

Nur said that his talks with Ibn Chambas was for the purpose of explaining the SLM-AW point of view as well as that of the SRF on the need to seal a deal which ensures the achievement of a just and comprehensive peace in the country while reiterating their rejection of partial solutions.

"We rejected the Sirte talks, Arusha, Doha and Arusha again because there is a call coupled with conditions that reject a comprehensive solution and achieving security. Days have proved the correctness of our position and all partial agreements have failed," he explained.

He stressed that the meeting did not include or result in anything that would push for new negotiations on Darfur conflict or joining the Doha peace agreement adding that they want to explain how to achieve peace in Darfur.

The rebel leader noted that the participation of Khatir as an SPLM-N expert in the negotiations highlights the SLM-AW position in the direction of reaching comprehensive solution. He emphasized that all SRF members have an obligation to defend the unity of the alliance which they established.

"We must defend the SRF unity against the attempts of regional and international forces to decouple the Sudanese crisis and continue the failed partial solutions. The SRF unity is the guarantor to achieve a comprehensive solution and the principles that we promised the people of Sudan which is a regime change and building a state of equal citizenship," Al-Nur said.

In a related issue JEM denied reports that it intends to engage in negotiations with the government in Doha emphasizing that it would not sit at the dialogue table away from the SRF which should be brought in as an observer with an emphasis on holding a constitutional conference away from partial solutions.

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TURABI is comming back.

Turabi’s party accepts dialogue with Sudan’s ruling NCP


February 11, 2014 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan’s opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) led by Hassan Al-Turabi has announced its acceptance to engage in dialogue with the ruling National Congress Party (NCP).

The new move contradicts PCP’s previous stances in which it asserted that its main objective is to overthrow the regime of president Omer Al-Bashir. But it comes in line with a decision endorsed earlier this week by the general secretariat of the opposition Islamist party to engage in dialogue with the ruling NCP.

Late last month, the Sudanese president delivered a speech in which he announced a four-point plan for reform "to stop the war and bring peace, free political society, fight against poverty and revitalize national identity".

In a speech attended by Turabi and Sadiq Al-Mahdi, Bashir further called on political forces to engage in dialogue for the implementation items though he did not specify practical steps to do so.

The PCP political secretary, Kamal Omer, in a press conference on Tuesday unveiled his party’s decision to dialogue with the ruling party amid wide resentment among the opposition alliance forces.

Kamal Omer further criticized several forces within the opposition National Consensus Forces (NCF) for setting preconditions to engage in dialogue with the ruling party, adding "those conditions are illogical and unacceptable", and called upon them to participate in the dialogue and then set their conditions.

Sudan’s opposition parties refuses NCP call for dialogue and instead propose forming a transitional government and holding a national conference with the participation of rebel groups to discuss a peaceful solution for the conflicts in Darfur region, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile states.

The interim government, in accordance with the opposition platform, would organise general elections once a political agreement on constitutional matters is reached, inaugurating a new democratic regime. But the NCP rejects this proposal saying opposition parties must simply prepare for the 2015 elections and that rebels should sign first peace accords.

Kamal Omer said his party accepted president Bashir’s recent initiative for holding a national dialogue without preconditions in order to urge the NCP to accept a transitional period with the participation of all political forces.

He further acknowledged the NCP’s previous history of betraying promises with political parties, but mentioned that there are now "objective changes within the regime" including the increasing calls for reform, last year coup attempt, and the recent cabinet shakeup which saw the departure of the leading figures who sparked differences with the PCP.

Leading figures with the opposition alliance NCF commented in statements to Sudan Tribune on conditions of anonymity on the political shift of Turabi party and dmitted that PCP’s move would split the opposition considering it a blatant attempt to abandon its allies.

The same sources expressed surprise on Turabi’s move saying the Islamist leader was amongst those who mocked the leader of the opposition National Umma Party (NUP), Al-Sadiq Al-Mahdi, for initiating dialogue with the ruling party on the same issues which the PCP intends to discuss with the government.

It further went to suggest validity of rumours about existence of secret understandings between Turabi and the Sudanese president, Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, pointing Turabi has been warning for a long time against dangers of toppling the regime by force.

During his press conference, Kamal Omer, told reporters that their differences with the NCP were not personal and that they don’t hold personal grudges against NCP leaders.

He was alluding to a paper circulating within the party prepared by some of its members calling to reform the PCP and accusing Turabi of freezing the positions of the Islamist party form the ruling NCP because of his personal bitterness against former vice-president Ali Osman Taha and president Al-Bashir.

The PCP split from the NCP following 1999’s bitter power struggle between Bashir and Turabi, with the latter was ousted from his post as parliamentary speaker and the chairmanship of the ruling party alike.

Turabi later established the PCP and has since been a vociferous critic of the very regime whose army-backed seizure of power in 1989 he orchestrated.

Omer said the upcoming dialogue will test the credibility of the ruling party and would not last indefinitely and pointed that PCP saw "the present time is the right time for engaging in dialogue with the government" while the NUP initiated dialogue with it ahead of all political parties, adding each party has its own assessment.

Informed sources within the PCP told Sudan Tribune that failure of the opposition forces to agree on drafting the new constitution during the transitional period has encouraged the PCP’s move, pointing that it received positive signals that NCP could change many of its previous stances.

It also said the PCP received information about foreign influences but declined to go into details.

President Al-Bashir on Wednesday will meet with the leader of the Umma party Sadiq Al-Mahdi to discuss the position paper the latter prepared about the presidential initiative for national dialogue.

(ST)