Oil from Sudan

- The Zimbabwe government has taken its begging bowl to Sudan in search of desperately needed fuel supplies.

Negotiations are currently underway to import petroleum from Sudan, Africa’s largest country wrecked by decades of civil war, to ease the chronic fuel crisis ahead of the crucial March 29 general poll.

The government seeks to import crude oil and then process it at its Mt Hampden fuel plant. The processing plant was commissioned by President Robert Mugabe and Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono late last year.

Official sources said plans for the arrangement were at an advanced stage. It is understood authorities were anxious to seal the deal before March. Zimbabwe is currently surviving on ad hoc deals signed with various fuel merchants.

South Africa and Equatorial Guinea are the main suppliers while numerous fuel contracts signed before have collapsed due to chronic foreign currency shortages.

Sudanese ambassador to Harare, Mohamed Sharief, confirmed this week that talks were in progress.

“We are still negotiating and we expect that by March an agreement will have been reached,” Sharief said. “We have very good relations with Zimbabwe and we want to help.”

But energy minister Mike Nyambuya professed ignorance of the deal, saying: “I’m hearing about it for the first time.”

Sharief, however, said private companies were also keen to import fuel from Sudan. He said his country exports 500,000 barrels of crude oil a day with the potential to sell more.

There are at least 14 big private companies holding commercial fuel licences in Zimbabwe while 246 small private firms have licences to import petroleum products.

It is understood the a number of direct fuel import permits has since dramatically increased due to a thriving fuel black market. Government officials and cronies are deeply involved in the illicit trade.

Diplomatic sources said the Sudan oil arrangement was likely to spark a row with the US which was opposed to petroleum deals involving Khartoum. This week Washington vehemently objected to a fuel deal between Sudan and Kenya.

Zimbabwe wants to join countries like China and Malaysia - its main allies in the scramble for Sudan’s vast oil reserves. The move is likely to cause serious ructions in the international community.

The US is opposed to any fuel trade with Sudan because, so Washington says, the Khartoum regime uses oil revenue to fund its Janjaweed militia. The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and its military wing, the SPLA, have offices in Harare.

There is now a global campaign to force international companies and countries tapping Sudan’s huge oilfields to abandon operations because the industry is fuelling the war.

Just last week, renowned Hollywood director Steven Spielberg pulled out of an Olympics Stadium design project because China continues to bankroll Sudan by buying oil imports and perpetuating genocide in that country.