The South Sudanese government has seized what had been Sudan's share of the south's oil production and has decided to build a new pipeline that would not cross through Sudanese territory, the latest sign that the two former war foes are unlikely to resolve by negotiation the issues created when South Sudan became an independent country this summer.

South Sudan has sold 33.4 million barrels of oil to international buyers at an estimated value of $3.2 billion, despite a deadlock in negotiations with the north on the industry, the oil ministry said.

A suspected Sudanese air strike on a refugee camp in South Sudan will not trigger a return to war but belligerent posturing on both sides will complicate and slow talks over oil transit fees and other sensitive disputes.

South Sudan has proposed to offer north Sudan a "package" to resolve the deadlock in the ongoing post-independence negotiations on southern oil transportation, a senior member of the ruling party said.

The Sudanese government blasted, on Thursday, November 17, what it claimed was a decision by South Sudan president Salva Kiir to confiscate shares of its state oil firm Sudapet.

The newly independent state of South Sudan managed to sell, via tender, a cargo of Nile Blend crude for December. It will load at the highest premium in at least four years and is fueled by fears of possible conflict with its northern neighbor.

South Sudan said it was offering its former civil war foe Khartoum oil at discounted prices and financial help if it gives up a claim to the disputed border region of Abyei.

Instability in South Sudan’s oil-rich Unity state threatens the already fragile, newly independent country, the International Crisis Group has warned.

The ICG considers Unity a test case for the broad range of deferred internal issues that South Sudan has to deal with after six years of focusing on the peace deal that ended decades of civil war with the north and culminated in peaceful secession in July.

The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir issued a veiled threat to the newly established Republic of South Sudan (RoSS) that an agreement on oil transit fees must be reached by the end of October. In an interview with the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper, Bashir stressed that the main purpose of the fees charged for transporting oil produced in RoSS is to shore up the budget shortfall in Sudan after the south’s secession.

There are indications that the governments of South Sudan and the Sudan will soon reach an agreement on a fee to be paid to the Sudan for transporting oil through its pipeline.