Oil
Found in South Darfur
Oil
issues threaten to derail Sudan hopes for peace
Once
again, here is another report that says it was the discovery
of oil in southern Sudan in 1979, often under land close
to the historical border between north and south, that
led to the start of the second bloody civil war in the
south in 1983.
The
report also reveals that the president of Sudanese oil
exploration company Advanced Petroleum Company (APCO),
Salah Wahbi, told The Sunday Business Post that oil
had been found in South Darfur. He said that oil had
been found in south Darfur and he urged the rebels to
return to the negotiating table. It quoted Mr Wahbi
as saying:
The people of Darfur will benefit from sharing the oil
wealth locally under a future peace agreement. Why delay
by continuing fighting?
The following is a copy of the report titled Oil issues
threaten to derail Sudan hopes for peace by Pieter Tesch
in The Sunday Business Post, 3 April 2005:
The
arrival of a delegation of the southern Sudan People's
Liberation Movement (SPLM) in Khartoum last week marked
another step in the normalisation of relations between
north and south Sudan. The delegation arrived to discuss
the implementation of the January 9 comprehensive peace
agreement (CPA) that officially ended the 22-year civil
war in the south of the country.
The
SPLM and the government of Sudan are expected to reach
agreement on the formation of a government of national
unity, the new government of the south and the government
of the states, but proposals to share the country's
oil wealth on a 50/50 basis may lead to further friction.
In
early March, shares in the newly-formed London oil exploration
company, White Nile, rose on the London Stock Exchange
from 10p to 13.85p after news broke that the firm had
signed a deal with the SPLM for block B in the south.
However,
the Khartoum government said the deal was not valid,
as the deal made in 1980 between French oil giant Total
and the Sudanese government had been renewed last December,
before the signing of the CPA.
"The
deal between the SPLM and White Nile over block B had
no standing in international law, as the CPA clearly
stated that all existing oil agreements superseded the
clauses of the CPA," Salah Wahbi, president of
Sudanese oil exploration company Advanced Petroleum
Company (APCO), told The Sunday Business Post.
"Total
has been paying the government rent and I believe has
no intention to give up its concession for block B."
Wahbi
said that the SPLM should realise that it was part of
the future government of Sudan and should act accordingly.
Under the CPA, a commission was to be set up to deal
with such matters, and the dispute over block B should
be left to the commission, he said.
It
was the discovery of oil in southern Sudan in 1979,
often under land close to the historical border between
north and south, that led to the start of the second
bloody civil war in the south in 1983.
Much
of the fighting centered on oilfields like Bentiu and
Abyei and the war spilled over into the nearby Nuba
mountains in the South Kordofan state. It is officially
part of northern Sudan, but is mainly inhabited by the
Nuba, an ancient African farming people who sided with
the SLPM, while the local Arab nomads allied themselves
with the Khartoum government.
A
ceasefire for the Nuba mountains was concluded more
than two years ago in Kenya. With the help of the UN,
a ceasefire monitoring framework was set up with the
aim of preventing renewed conflicts over land and water.
At
a press briefing in Khartoum last Sunday, UN special
envoy Jan Pronk, who had just returned from a trip to
the Nuba mountains, hailed the area as an example of
how the peace process could create new opportunities
for the rest of Sudan. He said there were similar problems
between Arab nomads and Africans in Darfur.
Irish
aid agency Goal, which is working in the Jebel Mara
mountain range in the heart of Darfur, is one of the
few agencies that has provided health programmes to
local nomads, while assisting the local Fur people to
build up their lives after the area was devastated by
the civil war in 2003 and 2004.
But
peace in Darfur seems as far away as ever, with negotiations
stalled between the Sudanese government and Darfuri
rebels, who have attacked oil installations on the southern
borders of Darfur and Kordofan.
Wahbi
said that oil had been found in south Darfur and he
urged the rebels to return to the negotiating table.
"The people of Darfur will benefit from sharing
the oil wealth locally under a future peace agreement.
Why delay by continuing fighting?"
Ingrid
-Sudan Watch
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