Oil minister Puot Kang ‘locked out’ of J-1 meeting for ‘causing problems’ between Khartoum and Juba

JUBA – South Sudan’s minister of petroleum Puot Kang Chuol has said that he was denied entry into a meeting in the presidency between a delegation of Sudan and the presidency because he was being accused of causing problems between Sudan and South Sudan.

Chol said in a statement that Sudan is reluctant to pay the Transitional Financial Arrangement (TFA) arrears it owes to South Sudan and called on the government in Juba to push Sudan into respecting its financial commitments.

“We must push Sudan to pay Transitional Financial Arrangement (TFA) arrears. Ministry of Petroleum has called on the government to aggressively demand the transitional financial arrangement dues from the Sudanese government,” he said.

The senior government official said that his government has paid at least $3.028 billion owed to Sudan into transitional financial arrears to Sudan for transport of his country’s oil and urge the northern neighbor to respect its responsibility.

“This continuous inland lifting of 28,000 barrels per day of our crude oil has accumulated to the sum of $136 million as of March 2022 which was reconciled and signed by the two countries, and the figure starting from April to October 2022 stands at $310 million, making an average monthly inland lifting of about $30 million per month,” said Chol.

“This means the total figure starting from March 2022 to October 2022 amounts to $446 million due to the Republic of South Sudan,” he added.

He further revealed that he was denied a meeting comprising the Sudanese ministers of petroleum and presidential affairs, but was locked out of the meeting because he was being accused of causing problems between Sudan and South Sudan.

“They did not want me to be part of the meeting because they said I was causing problems between Sudan and South Sudan, which was not my intention,” he said.

“My intention is to take what is fair to you and leave what is fair to me, and that remains my intention,” he added.