2012

South Sudanese President Salva Kiir said neighboring Sudan is demanding that his government disarm rebels fighting the government in Khartoum before it allows the south to restart oil exports.

Sudan is blocking South Sudan from restarting oil production as agreed in a September peace deal, South Sudan President Salva Kiir said.

South Sudanese rebels have attacked several villages in the oil-rich east of the new African country and are marching in large numbers on further communities, military and local officials said on Thursday.

The president of South Sudan Salva Kiir declared that his country’s oil production will be restarted next week after nearly a year of suspending it over a dispute with Khartoum on transit fees for exporting the crude through the north’s pipelines.

The Sudanese oil minister Awad al-Jaz said today that the country has 762 million barrels of oil reserves as of 2012 and disclosed that his ministry is seeking to boost gas reserves as well.

South Sudan will begin pumping oil this month after nine months of a production shutdown sparked by a dispute over transportation fees with neighboring Sudan, government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin said.

Astrup Fearnley’s collaboration with the controversial oil company, Lundin Petroleum, recently lead to the withdrawal of one of the museum’s guest speakers. – No big drama, says the museum’s director.

The World Bank is studying plans by South Sudan to build a highway to link to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, according to a World Bank senior transport engineer who works in the country.

South Sudan is getting a boost in aid from Norway over the next two years. The Norwegian government has pledged to provide up to $8.5 million in aid to the African country over the next two years as part of its ‘Oil for Development’ program.

Sudan is not expected to see any jump in oil production in the next five years despite intensified efforts by Khartoum to expand exploration per figures released this week by the West’s energy watchdog.