GoNU and GoSS should establish a fully-fledged audit system to cater for the oil industry’s socio-economic, environmental, and security impact after the south’s referendum on independence, a two-day oil conference resolved. It was also recommended that oil companies compensate communities for past and current injustices.

The SAF and the SPLA signed a framework agreement on securing oilfields and related infrastructure in the South. The JIUs will continue in accordance with the current security arrangements for the purposes of protecting the oilfields, companies and their employees as well as boosting the security situation in the region before and after the South Sudan referendum.

Sudan has generated 357.36 million US dollars in oil revenues for the month of October, the Ministry of Finance and National Economy revealed on Sunday.
The under-secretary at the ministry, Mustafa Hawli, said that the share of the semi-autonomous region of South Sudan in oil revenues for October is $140.56 million while that of the national government in Khartoum is $209.41 million.

Sudan will add 30,000 barrels per day of crude with a new oilfield in the north, hiking its total production to 500,000 bpd, an official said. Sudan’s economy is heavily dependent on crude and the south — where most of the oil is located — is hurtling towards independence in a January 9 referendum on secession as part of a 2005 peace deal ending Africa’s longest north-south civil war.

The Sudanese government said the North is expected to boost its production of oil to 200,000 barrels per day within 3-5 years. The North will boost production in Block 6 and says it made a 'significant' discovery in Block 7.

On 6 July, negotiations for post-referendum arrangements started in Khartoum. Finance play a key role in these negotiations. Sudan’s substantial oil industry is the dominant money-maker for the country’s two governments and to split it up will be an extremely complex and sensitive operation. The significant wealth that oil generates is equally important to both parties and if they agree on a mutually satisfactory formula, oil could be the foundation for a peaceful future. The time is now ripe to seize the opportunity to make the country’s natural resources benefit the people.
This report presents an overview of facts and trends in Sudan’s petroleum industry and highlights key challenges for the coming period.

China and India have also followed a necessary hedging strategy by establishing quasi-diplomatic relations with the Government of Southern Sudan in Juba. This marks a major shift in policy from dealing exclusively with the central government. However, this does not leave them invulnerable to present uncertainties revolving around Sudan’s potential split. Due to its economic role in Sudan, China in particular is in a unique position to promote a peaceful transition.
to promote a peaceful transition.

Next January the people of southern Sudan will vote in a referendum to decide whether or not to separate from the north. An independent southern Sudan would leave the Khartoum government without its main bread earner: almost 500,000 barrels of crude oil daily. Since most of Sudan's oil lies in the south, this raises the question of how the north would survive without the billions of dollars of annual revenue that oil brings in.

The oil production from fields in North Sudan will reach 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2010, an official at the oil ministry said on Sunday. The remarks come amid raging fears on the impact of the likely South Sudan breakup on the economy of the North.

The former U.S. special envoy to Sudan under President Bush today assailed the Obama administration saying they had allowed Khartoum to get off the hook despite numerous violations it has committed in the South and Darfur. "But other key issues have gone unaddressed. There is no evidence of any progress on the decisive issue of oil-revenue sharing, for instance. Without some acceptable resolution of this thorny issue, war cannot be ruled out," Williamson said. He emphasized that the oil revenue sharing is the most sensitive to the North. "In the end, the oil issue is about money, which makes it solvable. The South can agree to pay a "carrying fee" for oil to be transported over pipelines in the north and loaded onto oil tankers in Port Sudan. There should be room to work out a revenue-sharing deal acceptable (if not preferable) to both sides, with appropriate guarantees and an acceptable lifespan," the former envoy said. He warned that this is an issue that could cause a return of war between North and South.