By Machel Amos

The Citizen Correspondent Juba. South Sudan on Friday chose to shut down the oil pipeline that runs through Sudan to the export terminal along the Red Sea coast in response to a persistent oil row.

The council of ministers in a sitting chaired by President Salva Kiir directed Petroleum and Mining minister Stephen Dhieu Dau to execute the decision immediately, Information minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said.

The two countries have been involved in an oil row since South Sudan gained its independence from Khartoum. In a recent development, South Sudan has accused Khartoum of preventing two ships carrying 1.6 million barrels of southern crude oil from leaving Port Sudan.

But the Sudanese Foreign ministry in Khartoum said the reason for the delay was that Juba had failed to pay port duties in Port Sudan. Although most of Sudan’s oil (about 75 per cent) is produced in the south, for now it can only be exported via the north, and the two countries disagree over how much Juba should pay for using the north’s pipeline and export infrastructure.  ENDS 

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