Visiting policy fellow Kate Almquist is quoted in an article from the Middle East Economy Survey on divisions between Sudan and South Sudan over oil revenues.
Having originally been scheduled for 26 August, this latest round of African Union (AU) mediated talks between the two sides began on 4 September with the issues of border demarcation and security high on the agenda.
An interim deal on oil transit fees was reached early last month, but is yet to be finalized as both North and South Sudan feel an agreement on these issues is vital before Southern Sudanese oil can resume its flow through the North.
The division of oil revenues was one of the main issues left unresolved when the South broke away from Sudan in July 2011, taking with it around 75% of Sudan’s historical oil reserves (MEES, 9 July 2011). The two sides had since been locked in a bitter dispute which came to a head in late January, when the South shut down its 350,000 b/d or so of oil production following admissions from the Sudanese government that it had been seizing some of the South’s oil as it flowed through the North and on to Port Sudan for export.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on 31 August urged the two sides to push on in their efforts to reach a permanent deal that could dramatically improve the deteriorating economic situation in both countries.
The UNSC has set a deadline of 22 September for the two sides to conclude all negotiations.
Yet despite the setting of this deadline, observers are on the whole pessimistic as to whether this timeframe is one the two sides will be able to work with. “I would be surprised if they manage to deal with all their unresolved issues by the UNSC deadline,” Kate Almquist, a visiting policy fellow with the Center for Global Development tells MEES. “This raises big questions about what the AU Security Council and the UNSC could do to further pressure the parties on both sides to resolve the outstanding issues.”