SOUTH SUDAN AND KENYA SIGN PIPELINE DEAL
Within days of reaching agreement with hostile neighbour Khartoum Sudan over the fees on transporting South Sudans oil to Port Sudan for export said to have been literally forced down South Sudans throat by Western governments and subsequently the most expensive such deal ever costing the South some 12 billion US Dollars over the lifespan of the 3 year agreement has South Sudan reacted to provide for alternatives from 2015 onwards. In a deal announced today did they sign a major deal with Kenya, to build a 2.000 kilometre long pipeline to the planned port of Lamu, where an oil export terminal will be constructed to facilitate the loading and shipping of crude oil.
South Sudan had earlier in the year halted oil production and exports completely following the discovery that Khartoum Sudan had systematically stolen Southern oil on a large scale, only to claim it was their right in order to recover phantasy charges demanded for the transit of the black gold.
When attaining independence over 75 percent of the united Sudans oil reserves went to the South Sudan, leaving Khartoum reeling from the sudden deficit of readily available cash used to pay for arms, ammunition and to reward regime friendly militias doing the dirty work for them and soon afterwards started a series of aerial bombings of Southern territory, eventually prompting a sharp reaction from the Juba government. It resulted in the brief repatriation of Abyei, a state still awaiting their chance for an independence referendum as are South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, where ethnic cleansing of a massive scale has taken place over the past year, perpetrated by the same methods used by the regime in Darfur and previously in the South when the Southern African population was still treated literally like slaves.
The announcement in Nairobi of the pipeline deal will go a long way to restore confidence in the South Sudan of a brighter future, while Kenya can now be assured that the South Sudan oil pipeline will become reality along the LAPSSET corridor which will link Lamu port with Ethiopia and South Sudan by road, rail and pipeline. Construction is expected to commence in early 2013 and completion of the project is hoped for to take place before the present oil transit deal between South Sudan and Khartoum is expiring in 2015. Watch this space.
