Oil imports from Sudan at a standstill

Sudanese oil shipments to Ethiopia are expected to restart in April after grinding to a halt barely two weeks after deliveries began, an official at the Ethiopian petroleum ministry told IRIN on Thursday. Thousand of tons of imported oil came to a standstill just weeks after the first ever deliveries from Sudan to Ethiopia began arriving in late January, the official confirmed. He blamed the current six-week shutdown – which started in mid February – on the refinery run by the Sudan Petroleum Corporation which, he said, needed an overhaul. “The refinery needed maintenance – annual maintenance,” he said. “That is why the deliveries have stopped.” However, a spokesman at the Sudanese embassy in Addis Ababa said they were unaware that oil shipments had been halted. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has expressed concern that saboteurs could target oil delivery trucks, although there is no indication any attacks have occurred. Ethiopia is hoping to import about 10,000 mt a month of gasoline from Sudan, the official said. Some 3,000 mt of diesel fuel would also be imported monthly. Ethiopia’s annual oil consumption stands at two million mt and it spends about US $221 million on oil each year. Officials say that the oil from Sudan – which produces some 220,000 barrels a day - would save Ethiopia about US $7 million per year, and it is also of high quality. The oil deal – which is expected to meet 85 percent of the country's gasoline demand - was signed in June 2001 and comes amid increasing trade between the countries. Ethiopia used to operate its own refinery in Eritrea until the border war between the two countries flared up in 1998.