Sudan blocks S. Sudan oil exports 

(MENAFN - Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir announced Friday evening that his country decided to deny South Sudan the transit of its oil exports of to a third country as of today.

"We'll never allow them to export oil via our territories from now on; we'll never let them get a single dollar from oil revenues even if they give us half of the revenues since they used these revenues to fight us," he vowed.

Al-Bashir made the pledge while addressing a mass rally held at the Green Square, downtown Khartoum, to celebrate the recapture of the oil-rich Heglig region from the South Sudanese forces.

Rejecting as "sheer lies" South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit' claim that the southerners pulled out from the region in response to international calls for calm, Al-Bashir said: "Salva Kiir refuses to admit defeat of his forces." Al-Bashir reiterated his earlier statement that the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM ruling in South Sudan) is "insects," vowing "to cleanse South Sudan of them." The negotiations between the two sides on the oil dossier entered a blind alley shortly before the fighting over Heglig broke out in early April.

During the Ethiopia-brokered talks Sudan demanded raising the transit fees for South Sudan oil exports from USD one to USD 36 per barrel.

The fighting resulted in total halt to the South Sudan's oil production - estimated at 375,000 bpd, and Heglig production which accounts for 50 percent of Sudan's output.