South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Awan Achiek
The government has lost 70 percent of revenues due to rupture along the oil pipeline enroute to Port Sudan amid the ongoing civil war in neighboring Sudan.
Samuel Yanga Mikaya, First Deputy Governor of the Central Bank said the dark line along the oil pipeline which constitutes more than 70% of the oil has stopped functioning.
“The oil, we have two lines. We have the dark line, which constitutes more than 70% of our oil, and then we have the light line that is going from Bentiu,” Yanga said during the launch of South Sudan Focus Report 2024 on Wednesday in Juba.
Yanga disclosed that the disruption of oil flow has resulted in a dramatic revenue drop, leaving the government without enough funds to pay civil servants.
“The light line does operate, but the dark line is the one that has stopped making us lose 70% of the income, and that has been due to the war in Sudan,” he said.
He said the dark line along the pipeline was supposed to be operational by now had it not experienced another defect.
“We received information that the damage was going to be repaired in two weeks, but then later on, another defect happened, and the challenge with the light line is that the moment it is hot and air gets into the pipe it jams up,” Yanga said.
He said engineers are repairing the ruptured oil pipeline enroute to Port Sudan in a bid to restore oil production amid economic slump.
“Clearing this requires a lot of effort and the government plus all the engineers are operating on clearing it, working day and night. We all have the hope that they will clear, but they did not also tell us the timing of when it will get clear for the oil to resume,” Yanga disclosed.
“But that is generally the information that we have. The government is working on that, and definitely, I think they will go through, and the oil will start to go,” he added.
Oil exports halted on 6th February 2024, after damage was detected along the pipeline.
Force majeure was declared on March 16, after operators of the Jabalayn-Port Sudan pipeline discovered gelling between Pump Stations 4 and 5, located in a military operation zone.
The incident was noted by Sudanese authorities when an impeded flow was detected in mid-February.
Concerns were also sparked earlier this year when Sudan’s main refinery, the 100,000-bpd al-Jaili facility near Khartoum, was hit by shelling in January and February.
