Roundup: Fuel crisis real test for Sudan's new government

The fuel crisis has emerged again in Sudan to be a real test for the new government which took the constitutional oath last Sunday.

The oil stations in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and some other states have been witnessing increasing tension under scarcity of fuel, particularly gasoline, which pushed the Sudanese presidency to intervene to contain the crisis.

Sudan's Vice President Hassabo Mohamed Abdul-Rahman on Tuesday held a meeting at the presidential palace with the Sudanese Petroleum Minister Mohamed Zayed Awad.

The meeting reiterated reactivation of the monitoring mechanism established by the petroleum ministry to end manipulation of the oil materials and preserve the fuel supply in a manner that can serve all the service and development fields.

"The vice president stressed the importance of taking tough measures regarding the distribution of the petroleum materials to the fuel stations to fill in the loopholes," Awad told reporters following the meeting.

The minister said the monitoring mechanism has wide influence, adding that it brings together a number of authorities, including the security organs, to end any manipulation that may harm citizens' lives.

However, the fuel crisis has cast shadows on some vital sectors, particularly the electricity, where wide areas in the Sudanese capital and some other states have been witnessing power supply cut off that lasts till late evening hours.

In response, the Sudanese Company for Electricity Distribution attributed the power supply cut off to the lack of fuel at the power generating stations.

"The power generated by fuel constitutes 50 percent of the total available electricity in the country, where fuel scarcity negatively affects the stability of the power supply to the capital and states linked with the national network," the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

Additionally, it is widely feared that the fuel scarcity would affect the agricultural season.

To this end, Karamalla Abbas, the chairman of the Farmers' Union of Geddarif state in eastern Sudan, warned that the agricultural season is threatened if the fuel crisis continues.

Geddarif state, some 412 km east of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, is the biggest agricultural area in Sudan and is famous for cultivation of crops, top of them sesame and sorghum.

Meanwhile, analysts believe that the security tension in South Sudan would further aggravate the fuel crisis in Sudan as South Sudan's oil products pass through Sudan's oil facilities.

To this end, Abdul-Karim Mahdi, a Sudanese political analyst, told Xinhua that "definitely South Sudan's problems negatively affect Sudan, namely in relation to scarcity of fuel."

Sudan has lost two thirds of its oil revenues following the separation of South Sudan in July 2011.

Sudan is currently producing around 120,000 barrels a day, but it is expected to jump to 150,000 barrels by end of 2017, according to Osman Ali Salih, the director general of oil exploration at Sudan National Petroleum Corporation. Endit