As a UN deadline approaches (2 August), South Sudan has provided its last offer of US$3.2Billion in compesation to help Sudan cover a budget deficit resulting from loss of three quarters of its oil production when south sudan seceded in July 2011.
Juba also proposes an increased transit fee to move its oil through Sudan and says it will waive its claim to nearly US$5Billion it says it is owed by Khartoum.
The two parties are currently holding talks in Adis Ababa, Ethiopia.
However, Sudanese negotiators on Monday dismissed as “nothing new” what their South Sudanese counterparts have termed as the “last offer” to resolve the two countries’ disputes over oil transit fees and the status of Abyei, in the latest setback to talks bound by a UN deadline due to end in nine days.
South Sudan’s chief negotiator Pagan Amum, said Monday that Juba told Khartoum it can pay US$9.10 for every barrel of oil that passes through pipelines owned by the China-led Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), and US$7.26 for every barrel of oil that passes through PetroDar pipelines.
The South Sudanese official said Juba would also forgive US$ 4.9 Billion in what it says are overdue oil payments before its independence and for oil Sudan confiscated after independence. Sudan says it took the oil in lieu of unpaid transit fees.
The offer also includes a new proposal to hold a referendum organized by the AU and the UN on the status of Abyei, Amum said.
But Sudan, which previously rejected the south’s offer of paying US$ 2.6 Billion in financial compensation and insisted on getting US$32 for every barrel of oil, swiftly rejected the new proposal saying carrying “nothing new”, as put by the member of its negotiating delegation Mutrif Sidiq.
Khartoum argues that since South Sudan decided to shifted from direct to AU-mediated talks means that the process is now back to the starting point.
South Sudan suspended direct talks with Sudan on Saturday citing an airstrike carried out the day before by the Sudanese army inside southern territories.
Khartoum denied the charge saying it only bombed forces of the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) after they crossed into Sudanese territories coming from South Sudan.
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