The Oil Sector Sustains Great Losses
Report – Rehab Abdullah
Although the losses to the Sudanese economy have not yet been estimated as a result of the war between the army and the Rapid Support Militia (RSF), the Minister of Oil and Energy, Dr. Mohieddin Naeem Mohamed, has revealed that the country lost 210 thousand barrels of oil, while depriving the country of the ability to produce 7 thousand barrels. And the destruction of gasoline and gas warehouses that were filled with petroleum products inside the Khartoum Refinery (affiliated with the companies), which led to the loss of large quantities of petroleum products for all companies, in addition to a decline in oil production throughout the war.
He expected that the cost of rebuilding the energy and oil sector would exceed $5 billion, returning it to its original state. He said that a committee had been formed to count the losses in the oil and electricity sectors, and it had come a long way.
Unforeseen losses
The former Minister of State in the Ministry of Oil, Consultant Engineer Ishaq Jamaa, confirmed that the cost of rebuilding the energy and oil sector exceeds the five billion dollars, he mentioned.
The Minister of Oil and Energy, the day before yesterday, attributed this in his speech to (Al-Ahdath) to the fact that the damage included most of the sector’s infrastructure, led by the Khartoum Refinery, and sabotage and intentional damage by the RSF Militia.
Ishaq Jamaa confirmed that the impact of the war on energy, especially oil, is very large, pointing out that there are unforeseen things, and therefore its impact on the Sudanese economy is reflected to a greater extent.
Ishaq pointed out that the Sudanese economy was suffering before the war from irregular energy supplies, especially petroleum products, due to the inability to build stores of them to sustain the supplies and needs of the economic activities of the productive sectors (industry, transportation, agriculture, domestic services, and trade) because there is an inseparable relationship between Economic growth and energy consumption.
* Queuing of displaced people appear*
Pointing out that when the rebellion broke out, the economic sectors stopped, and energy consumption decreased to the lowest level except for what the armed forces use in operations, and also this little through imports due to stop of the refinery and some of the basic structures of the petroleum supply chain, however, Ishaq pointed out that despite this in Sudan, queues of displaced persons appeared in such cases as also occur in many similar cases around the world, which has led to some or many international organizations whose employees cope with people’s crises, while families found support from their children working abroad, noting that they are essentially intelligence mechanisms from the originators of these crises belonging to western countries and their various axes in order to achieve their goals of destroying the state, the state’s economic structure, and implementing their projects inside Sudan. The most important of these means is weakening the state’s leaders and national institutions, infiltrating its political parties, creating armed movements and supporting them to fight the state, intimidating the honest, disrupting the wheel of production, and impoverishing the people, which facilitates the spread of crime, smuggling, and drug trafficking, which destroys Sudan’s striking power and future, spoils youth, and sparks border disputes.
*Deterioration of the currency*
Perhaps the economic expert, Dr. Mohammad Al-Nayer, also confirmed that the impact of the war on the economy in general and on oil in particular was significant, as the Khartoum refinery covered, on average, between 60 and 65% of Sudan’s need for oil derivatives, indicating that this provided a large amount of oil derivatives from abroad, which used to be done at a rate of only 35-40%, indicating that now with the cessation of the refinery, the losses have become large and the country has become importing its needs by 100%, which has led to pressure in the demand for foreign exchange and is considered one of the main reasons that led to the deterioration of the price of the national currency. Al-Nayer added in his speech to (Al-Ahdath) that the matter has become more difficult now after the problems facing the pipelines, pointing out that this has not only affected Sudan but also the state of South Sudan, and he considered it to greatly complicate the scene because the impact is no longer only on Sudan, but also on another country which has joint agreements with Sudan on exporting oil through Sudanese territory, and he warned that this would complicate the scene for the state of South Sudan and make it search for alternatives in this direction in the next stage.
