Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, has seized a strategic oilfield on the southern border of Sudan with South Sudan, halting production at the site, as the civil war in Sudan and clashes with the army intensify in the resource-rich Kordofan region.
The strategically positioned Heglig oilfield on Sudan’s southern border hosts the main processing facility for South Sudan’s oil.
“The liberation of the Heglig oil region is a pivotal point in the liberation of the entire homeland, given the region’s economic importance,” the paramilitary RSF said in a statement Monday as carried by the New Arab.
Workers and government forces at Heglig withdrew from the area and into South Sudan on Sunday to avoid clashes that could have damaged the oil facilities, government sources told Reuters on Monday.
Intensified fighting and the protracted civil war in Sudan are threatening the corridor for South Sudan and Sudan oil to reach international markets and for both countries to get legitimate revenues for their crude.
The conflict in Sudan erupted in April 2023, when RSF took up arms against the Sudanese army in the capital Khartoum.
Sudan is the only conduit for crude oil exports out of landlocked South Sudan.
South Sudan broke from Sudan in 2011 and took with it around 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) in oil production at the time. However, the only export oil pipeline out of landlocked South Sudan passes through its neighbor to the north, Sudan.
In March 2024, Sudan declared force majeure on crude oil exports from South Sudan, following a major rupture in the pipeline carrying crude from South Sudan to the port in Sudan in an area with active military activity.
Since the war erupted in Sudan, South Sudan’s oil exports have plunged. The country has struggled to get any money in its budget as its oil exports, on which it depends for 90% of state revenues, were stalled by the ruptured pipeline in Sudan.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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