LACK OF FULL OIL DATA THREATENS SUDAN PEACE

A failure to provide full oil production figures in Sudan threatens a fragile north-south peace deal, the advocacy and investigative group Global Witness warned. The London-based organisation said there were “serious questions” about the fair sharing of oil revenues – since oil is drilled in the south but controlled and sold only by former civil war enemies in the north. An equal share of oil revenues was the cornerstone of the 2005 peace deal that ended the 22-year long civil war in Sudan, Africa’s largest nation, in which at least 1.5 million people died. While many of the oilfields are found in the south, the only pipelines to the Red Sea coast are controlled by the north. According to the report, oil production figures from south Sudan released by Khartoum were lower than those provided by the companies which drilled the oil, by some 9-14 per cent in 2007 and 26 per cent in 2005. However, figures for oil drilled only in the north – and therefore outside the revenue sharing deal – do approximately match those provided by drilling companies, the report added.