The Sudanese oil ministry’s Undersecretary-General, Awat Abdel Fattah, has announced that they are almost finished arrangements with South Sudan to begin pumping the first batch of South Sudan’s oil through Sudan to international markets by mid-April.

The statement came after the conclusion of consultation meetings last weekend with his South Sudanese counterpart, Machar Achiek, in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.

He pointed out that the meetings were very fruitful and cooperative:

“The work is ongoing in the fields, wells and in the processing centres. After all these efforts I am expecting the first batch of South Sudan’s oil to flow within this month, between the 15^th to 20^th of April, when the oil will flow through northern Sudan’s processing centres to its transportation pipelines.”

He added that a fault in some of Sudan’s eastern pipelines means that some of the oil will be redirected although he expected that technicians will repair the faults shortly.

“As I told you, we are ready to receive the Southern oil in our processing centres, and we are ready to transport it through the western pipelines as there is technical fault in the eastern pipelines.”

South Sudan halted its oil production early last year following disputes with the Sudanese government over conditions and fees.  Since then, both countries have suffered economically as citizens complained of inflation and rising prices.