Sudan, S Sudan resume oil flows months after Juba shut down entire output

Crude oil carrier

flickr-roger4336

Sudan and South Sudan resume oil exports following a 15-months long halt that severely hit the two nations' economies.

The oil flow resumes after the countries' chief negotiators signed a final agreement on March 10. The deal came more than a year after South's capital Juba shut down its entire output. 

Sudan President Omar al-Bashir and his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir will see off the first shipment together at Port Sudan.

By mid-May, South Sudan is expected to begin exporting between 150,000 and 200,000 barrels of crude, having inherited around 75 percent of oil fields since its secession from Sudan.

Faced with the threat of UN sanctions and economic collapse, the two neighbors reached a border security deal on September 26 after more than three weeks of negotiations. 

Under the deal the creation of a demilitarized border buffer zone will allow landlocked South Sudan to restart oil exports through Sudan and thereby boost the economies of both states.