Sudan Vice President Malik Agar addresses reporters. (-)

Sudan’s junta government said on Thursday the transportation of South Sudan crude oil through Jabalayn – Port Sudan Pipeline will resume within two months.

This comes after Sudan’s Ministry of Energy and Petroleum declared a force majeure on one of the pipelines on March 16, 2024.

Khartoum said it was unable to facilitate the shipment of the crude oil from Paloch in Upper Nile State, citing interruptions from the ongoing conflict.

Meanwhile, Vice President Malik Agar of the Sovereign Council has confirmed Sudan’s commitment to restore pipeline functionality during a visit to Bashair 2 Port.

The vice president was briefed on the pipeline situation, including the extent of the damages operations they were subjected to, according to state-owned Sudan News Agency.

General Agar said the military regime is working to fix obstacles and challenges facing the transportation of crude oil through Sudanese territory.

He told the engineers at the Bashair 2 Port that the Sudanese government wants to achieve the common interests of the two countries.

Agar commended the efforts of the port workers, which enabled the facility to maintain good workflow despite the great problems and complications.

“The engineers have briefed us comprehensively about the readiness of the pipeline of South Sudan because some damages happened and they were able to maintain them in some stations,” Agar told SUNA.

“The remaining work is very small and is less than 80 kilometers, and the period of less than one month all these lines of pipelines will be active.”

“I visited them together with the minister of Energy and Petroleum, minister of interior and minister of information and culture, and we checked the work and progress of South Sudan pipeline.”

For his part, the Acting Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Muhyiddin Naeem Muhammad Saeed, pointed out the importance of maintaining the oil flow to achieve common interests and preserve the economies of the two countries.

Minister Saeed said they are repairing the damages that affected the pipelines.

“The purpose of the visit of the Deputy Chairman of the Sovereignty Council was to review the progress of work in re-operating the pipelines and to overcome all obstacles imposed by the war on the export of southern oil,” said Ibrahim Yaqoub, the director of Bashair Pipeline Company, which carries the crude oil.

Eng. Yaqoub confirmed that the company is repairing the damages and will soon announce the readiness of the line to re-pump the oil from South Sudan.

South Sudan’s economy depends heavily on revenue generated from crude oil transported through Sudan for international sale.