KHARTOUM, Sudan – Sudan has blocked a shipment of southern oil after Juba refused to pay customs fees, the foreign ministry said on Friday, escalating a row between the two sides, with the south accusing Khartoum of sabotaging its economy.
"Sudan has blocked the ship in Port Sudan…When the ship leaves the port, the south has to pay the customs authorities. This is the first time they didn't pay," foreign ministry spokesman al-Obeid Meruh told AFP.
Earlier, he had said the 600,000 barrel crude cargo had been blocked because the Juba government refused to pay the north's fees for the use of all its oil infrastructure, including its pipeline, refinery and Red Sea port, which is the south's only export terminal.
But he confirmed that no agreement had yet been reached between north and south on transit fees, one of the most sensitive of Sudan's various unresolved issues, saying that Khartoum was asking for US$32 dollars per barrel.
The ministry of energy and mines in South Sudan, which declared independence from the north a month ago, and from which 80 percent of Sudan's 470,000 barrels per day of oil is pumped, accused Khartoum of delaying the negotiations to squeeze the south.
"They want to stop the shipment so that it prolongs the whole process. Khartoum is trying to sabotage the economy of South Sudan," said the energy minister's undersecretary, David Loro.
