Economic Balila Field …At Crossfire

Sudan Events – Report – Rehab Abdullah

The RSF attacked Balila oil field in Western Kordofan and announced Capturing of Balila Airport. Information reported that there were damages in the field, but SAF units were attacked by the RSF militia.
I stopped her and forced her to leave the field.
Balila field is 55 kilometers from the city of Al-Fula in western Sudan
It is managed by OPCO , concession company of China National Petroleum Corporation.
It is nor first time that the field has been subjected to an attack.
It was attacked when protesting against failure of oil companies to realise promises of providing water and health services to the citizens. Addition to unfair of employing people from the area of these companies.
No one announced expansion of the attack, former Minister of State in Oil Ministry Eng. Advisor Ishaq Jamaa, downplayed the RSF attack that took place (Monday) on the Balila oil field in West Kordofan, and said in an interview conducted to (Sudan Events ) that the issue is more exaggerated than on reality .
He considered that was media propaganda He added, “There has never been an attack to the extent that was reported in the media.” He stressed that the attack was responded to and that there was no seizure or sabotage in the existing sense.
Ishaq downplayed the impact of the attack, noting that the oil transport line is originally a line that comes from the Heglig field to Port Sudan, feeding the Khartoum refinery and the El Obeid refinery. He explained that the bean crude comes raw and the impurities are filtered from it, then it joins the main line.
He added, on other part ,that the line is completely well controlled pointing the large part of it is underground and depends on a “plow,” and what they are talking about as a decontamination station comes from wells. He confirmed that with a degree of control and rearrangement of the sabotage that occurred, it can be arranged with the required speed.
He confirmed that, in fact, a portion of the citizens of this region appear to be, according to the information available, supportive of the Rapid Support, pointing out that dealing with the matter requires an effort to communicate with the tribal leaders in the region and the citizens, in order to prevent the occurrence of sabotage operations being carried out in the various locations by the Rapid Support, adding To ensure that an attack does not occur, it requires a number of forces, to further secure the areas, indicating that the attack that occurred was carried out by the force already present at the Al-Fula station, in addition to another force.
On the other hand, Ishaq downplayed the impact of what happened on the lack of supply of petroleum materials and continued, “It does not affect much,” and attributed this to the fact that the crude produced from oil wells decreased significantly by 40% of the refinery’s needs, and Sudan imports 70% of its needs of petroleum materials. He said: Therefore, even if a deficit problem occurs, it will be in the range of 20% to 30%, confirming that there is a stock in the refinery that covers the deficit in the event of a problem from a day to a month to restore the path to its normal state, which is considered to reduce the size of the impact during the brief obstacles that occur.

A statement issued by the Oil Sector Workers Association stated that they had information two days ago indicating that Rapid Support forces intend to carry out an attack on the Balila oil field, and confirmed that, accordingly, a technical and security plan was drawn up to close the field and evacuate the workers to a safe place.
The statement explained that the workers took the necessary measures to close all wells and treatment plants in the field in order to preserve the facilities and their safety, and then left to safe places.
The gathering confirmed that the RSF launched their attack today, which resulted in the capture of the Balila airport and parts of the field, according to the information they received a short while ago.
The gathering holds the RSF responsible for the security and safety of all workers and the safety of the oil installations that belong to the Sudanese people, and we warn of the danger of neglecting their safety.
The group stressed that oil production, facilities and technical personnel working in it are considered a national wealth and have international agreements that have an impact on the international and local community, and the necessity of protecting them and monitoring violations on a humanitarian and technical basis.
The group also held the senior management of OPOC responsible for the safety of the workers and asked them to quickly move them to the safest places and keep them far away from places that might be the ground for operations between the two parties, and to reduce the means of transportation and insurance, and warned them of the consequences of delaying their evacuation or sending them to other fields.