Southern Sudan is preparing plans to develop its oil industry that don’t include revoking contracts signed by Sudan’s government if it votes to secede in a Jan. 9 referendum, the region’s minister of energy said.

The Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) plans to build three new oil refineries should citizens of the semi-autonomous region choose to secede in the upcoming referendum scheduled for January 9, 2011.

The Minister for Energy and Mining Garang Diing Akuong says the Government of Southern Sudan will maintain the oil refinery in Port Sudan in case southern Sudan secedes in the coming referendum. However he added that new oil discoveries in southern Sudan will be refined in Kenya.

A group of U.S. and international institutional investors sent letters to top
telecommunications and oil and gas companies operating in Sudan, calling on them to take
steps to ensure they do not infringe on human rights as that country prepares for two
contentious referenda including a vote for southern Sudan’s independence.

The secretary-general of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), Pagan Amum, has outlined what he termed as “the ransom” that south Sudan is offering to north Sudan in order to break the deadlock over the future of the contested oil-producing area of Abyei.

Speaking in an exclusive phone interview with Sudan Tribune, the SPLM’s powerful figure has also warned that south Sudan could resort to other options to exercise the right of self-determination should the January 2011’s referendum on the region’s full independence from the north becomes “politically obstructed.”

The purpose of this paper and annex is to provide suggestions for ways in which a new, post-referendum oil deal between north and south Sudan could be made as transparent as possible in order to ensure that the deal is stable and that any tension and mistrust between the two sides is minimised. This document outlines the suggested transparency provisions, and the attached annex contains specific suggestions for the wording of these transparency provisions. Global Witness presents this document to the Parties in the hope that the experience we have gained from researching oil and transparency issues in Sudan and other countries, and from the pivotal role we have played in shaping the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI),1 can be of some use in fostering a new oil deal in Sudan that promotes peace and the economic viability of north and south.

The purpose of this paper is to provide suggestions for ways in which a new, post-referendum oil deal between north and south Sudan could be made as transparent as possible in order to ensure that the deal is stable and that any tension and mistrust between the two sides is minimised. This document outlines the suggested transparency provisions, and the attached annex contains specific suggestions for the wording of these transparency provisions. Global Witness presents this document to the Parties in the hope that the experience we have gained from researching oil and transparency issues in Sudan and other countries, and from the pivotal role we have played in shaping the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), can be of some use in fostering a new oil deal in Sudan that promotes peace and the economic viability of north and south.

The U.S. needs to reconsider its current sanctions against Sudan’s oil industry if the nation splits in two early next year, Senator John Kerry said. Last month, Kerry proposed the Sudan Peace and Stability Act of 2010, which calls for reviewing current sanctions on Sudan if the nation is divided and for increasing U.S. aid to Southern Sudan.

A former Khartoum backed militia leader, General Gabriel Tanginye, has joined the advisory board of a US-based investment group less than 10 days after joining the SPLA the former rebels who control southern Sudan.

Gabriel Tanginye shakes hands with leading members of the Nuer tribal community in Unity state, Bentiu on October 19, 2010 (AP) Jarch Management Group Limited, issued a statement, October 21, saying that Tanginye, who has been accused of instigating violence in south Sudan resulting in hundred of deaths, “strengthens” the company’s knowledge of the region.

China is courting the secessionist government of oil-rich southern Sudan, an apparent departure from Beijing's decades-long opposition to independence movements abroad.