South Sudan News Agency

More Facts Emerge About The Raw Deal on Oil

Juba, August 9, 2012 (SSNA) -- We issued a press statement on the 6^th instant explaining that South Sudan got a raw deal from the agreement on the transport of its oil through Sudan, due to poor negotiation from our side. Since then more facts that consolidate our position have emerge from none other than the SPLM leaders themselves.

In a press conference held by the Chief Negotiator in Juba published by Sudan Tribune website on the 7^th instant, he stated that the oil production will resume in September and that the rate will be 180,000 b/d rising to 190,000 b/d over several months. This will mean that our estimate in that press statement which was based on 200,000 b/d will go up.

The second to speak was the Vice President of the Republic, Dr Riek Machar, who said that Khartoum actually got $40 per barrel when it had asked for only $36 per barrel! See how generous our negotiating team was. This amount excludes the cost of cleanup and recovery of oil wells which experts estimate would cost not less than $20 billion. His remarks were reported by the Sudanese journalist, Alsir Sidahmed in the internet.

In the words of the Vice President of the Republic South Sudan has become “the biggest donor on earth to a single country, Sudan”.

We applaud the Vice President for his courage to speak out and call upon other government officials to follow suit in exposing the facts on the oil deal so that our public is informed about the extent of rip off our delegation in Addis Ababa landed South Sudan in. These are national issues which transcend party lines.