South Sudan to build Djibouti pipeline
21 February 2012
South Sudan has signed an agreement with Djibouti to build a new oil pipeline, to bypass its northern rival North Sudan which owns the only existing export route.
The plan is to build a pipeline to the port of Djibouti on the Red Sea via neighbouring Ethiopia. It follows an earlier deal with Kenya to link South Sudan’s rich oilfields to the Indian Ocean via a pipeline to the port of Lamu.
The South has been evaluating alternative routes after disagreements with the Khartoum-based regime over oil shipment fees to Port Sudan in the North.
Djibouti, on the Gulf of Aden at entrance to the Red Sea, lies at least a thousand kilometres from South Sudan’s oil fields, and crosses remote areas rife with rebel forces.