Ethiopia seeks to buy oil from South Sudan in bid to cut import tariffs
An oil worker pictured while at work in one of the country’s oilfields (File/Supplied/SSNN).
Nov 3nd, 2019 (SSNN)-The Ethiopian Government is seeking to buy oil from neighboring South Sudan to reduce the cost of exporting oil from the Middle East and Arab countries at exorbitant prices, said Ethiopia’s Minister of Mines and Petroleum Koang Tutlam in a statement in the capital, Juba.
“You can imagine bringing from the Middle East when you can tap from just 200 kilometers in Pagak or further from Adar,” he said.
“Ethiopia is awaiting construction of a planned South Sudan refinery near their shared border,” Koang said was quoted as saying.
Speaking to reporters, Koang said it would be much cheaper for the Ethiopian government to import its oil from South Sudan, a country located a few kilometers from Ethiopia.
“We are expecting it could be pretty fast, building a refinery may take one to two years, building the roads. So I think we would have it in three years if we agree to it.”
“The imports cost as much as $3.4 billion a year, but could be cheaper if bought from its western neighbor,” he said.
The Ethiopian official stated that the two countries had discussions and agreed to build electricity supplies, expected to be completed by the Ethiopian government.
Located in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia, currently home to 108 million people – is one of the landlocked countries, bordering Eritrea in the northeast, to the east by Somalia, and Djibouti to the west by Sudan and South Sudan and to the south by Kenyan.
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