CAIRO: South Sudan announced a withdrawal of its military arm, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) from the oil fields of Heglig. They had seized the oil fields ten days ago, in a brash move that shocked the region. Some analysts believed the move was part of a constellation of attacks on the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), that included Darfuri rebels, and Blue Nile rebels, in an attempt to fell the Khartoum government. South Sudan's information and media minister, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, on Friday told reporters in Juba that the country's president, Salva Kiir, had ordered the immediate withdrawal of the SPLA from Heglig, according to reports in The Sudan Tribune. “The Republic of South Sudan announces that SPLA troops have been ordered to withdraw from Panthou (Heglig),” Benjamin said. “An orderly withdrawal will commence immediately, and shall be completed within three days,” he added. Shortly after South Sudan's announcement, Sudan's defense minister Abdel Rahim, Mohamed Hussien appeared on state television to declare an SAF liberation of Heglig, indicating that they had defeated the SPLA. The outbreak of military confrontations followed months of failed negotiations between Khartoum and Juba over border demarcation, citizenship and oil exports. Heglig is extremely important to Khartoum because it represents roughly half of the Sudan's 115,000 barrel per day (bpd) oil output and the fighting has stopped production there. With South Sudan's secession last year the Sudan lost 75 percent of the country's oil production. Khartoum was hoping that transit fees on South Sudan's estimated 350,000 bpd output would help ease the loss. In an attempt to recoup the financial losses, Khartoum imposed a heavy tax on South Sudan's oil traveling through its pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Those transit fees account for 36 percent of the Sudan's budget. There are no other options for moving the oil, and when the land-locked South Sudan suspected Khartoum was siphoning the oil and asking for too much money, they responded by stopping oil extraction altogether. 98 percent of South Sudan's revenue is from oil; they are also considered one of the most under-developed regions in the world due to half a century of warfare with Khartoum. The Heglig oil fields, are allocated to the Sudan, and South Sudan shocked the region when they moved last week to take possession of them.
