Rebels say they cut oil flow to Khartoum as Kenyan mediator starts work

03/10/2002| IslamWeb

Sudan's southern rebels said they had cut off oil supplies to Khartoum just as a Kenyan mediator opened talks aimed at convincing the government to return to the negotiating table."A commando unit of the 20th brigade ... penetrated the oil collection and production complex in Heglig and destroyed the main station," said the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in a statement received here.

The rebel organisation said it suffered no casualties "despite attacks by the helicopter gunships of the regime" of President Omar al-Beshir.

"Oil supply to Khartoum has been cut off" as a result of the operation carried out early Monday, SPLA spokesman Yasir Arman told AFP on the telephone from Eritrea.

The Heglig oilfield accounts for the bulk of Sudan's oil production running currently at around 240,000 barrels per day (bpd). It came on stream in August 1999, making Sudan an oil-exporting country.

The government had made no comment several hours after the SPLA statement.

If confirmed, the destruction of the pumping station would strike a blow to Khartoum's plans to boost production to 300,000-325,000 bpd by the end of 2003, and to more than 450,000 bpd by 2005.

The statement was issued as Kenyan mediator General Lazaros Symbio was presenting ideas in Khartoum to convince the Sudanese government to resume peace talks with the rebels.

Symbio met Wednesday with Ghazi Salah Eddin Atabani, Beshir's advisor for peace talks, and foreign ministry undersecretary Mutref Siddeiq.

A statement released by the Sudanese government on the meetings with Symbio did not elaborate on the Kenyan mediation, but said Khartoum would study the initiative.

The government pulled out of the negotiations held in the Kenyan town of Machakos on September 2, to protest the the SPLA's capture of the southern key garrison town of Torit.

The aim of the negotiations was to finalise a landmark agreement signed in Machakos in July to end the 19-year civil war that has claimed around two million lives.

Under the accord, the mainly Christian and animist south is to enjoy six years of self-rule, before deciding in a referendum whether it wants to secede or remain part of the Sudanese state dominated by the Muslim north.

Khartoum has demanded a nationwide ceasefire as its price for going back to Machakos, but Arman on Tuesday said the SPLA would halt attacks only when the talks resume and as long as they last.

The SPLA "do not accept a ceasefire as proposed by the government," Arman said.

In its statement on the attack on the Heglig complex, the SPLA "renewed its warning to all oil companies, telling them to halt oil production until a just peace is achieved."

It said all oil contracts would be renegotiated if a deal is signed.

Heglig is operated by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co. (GNOC), a consortium made up of the China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), with a 40 percent stake, Malaysia's Petronas (30 percent), Canada's Talisman Energy (25 percent) and Sudanese state-owned company Sudapet (five percent).

The SPLA said the attack on Heglig was codenamed "our petrol."

"It targets the government's plan to pillage our people's resources ... The Heglig operation is the beginning of our response to the government offensive and the government should expect more surprises," it added.

Religious and human rights groups in Canada and the United States have protested Talisman's involvement in Sudan, charging that Khartoum was using revenue from its stake in GNOC to finance its war effort.

In June, London-based International Oil Daily reported that Talisman, based in Calgary, was trying to sell its assets in Sudan to India's state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) for 750 million dollars.

PHOTO CAPTION

SPLA rebels man a machine gun on top of an armoured car