Global Policy Forum

Sudanese rebels have warned that African countries such as Zimbabwe that are contemplating buying cheap fuel from Khartoum will be buying "blood oil" which has been drilled from areas where villagers have been driven out by bombs.

Zimbabwe, reeling from a severe fuel shortage since 1999, is investigating the possibility of augmenting its supplies with oil from strife-torn Sudan.

Sudan currently produces 220,000 barrels of oil a day from wells in the southern part of the country, where the government has fought a bitter war for more than 20 years against rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

The SPLA, made up of mainly blacks in southern Sudan, accuses the predominantly Arabic and Islamic administration in Khartoum of segregating against Christians and blacks. It is calling for self-governance of southern Sudan, an area reputed to have the largest oil and gas reserves in Africa.

Zimbabwe is a major supporter of the SPLA, led by Colonel John Garang de Mabior, and for years has been involved in efforts to solve the bitter civil war in the Sudan. Zimbabwe, suffering its worst economic slump in 21 years of independence, has recently gravitated towards the rich Arabic nations of north Africa such as Libya that support the Khartoum government of President Omar Al-Bashir.

Malaysia's Petronas- the owners of Engen, one of Zimbabwe's main oil suppliers-is one of the companies drilling in Sudan. Others are the National Petroleum Corporation of China, Sweden's Lundin Oil AB and Talisman Energy of Canada.

Talisman has said it might offload its Sudanese oil interests following the announcement of possible United States sanctions against companies involved in oil in the Sudan, Africa's largest country. The US House of Representatives in June voted for punitive sanctions against companies involved in Sudanese oil drilling that included being barred from listing on American stock exchanges or raising capital on Wall Street.

Barnaba Benjamin, the SPLA's representative for southern Africa, told the Financial Gazette in Harare this week that while his party could not stop African countries from buying the cheap Sudanese oil, they were concerned that the oil deals would fuel the conflict in his country. "This oil is killing our people.We are dealing here with people who are greedy, that is why we call it blood oil," Benjamin said.

He said the SPLA had warned the companies drilling in the Sudan as well as leaders such as Malaysia's Mahathir Muhammad that the guerrilla group would use everything in its power to stop the oil drilling "militarily". Garang has also warned that the foreign oil companies operating in southern Sudan would be considered legitimate targets by the SPLA.

Sudan, a member of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), has recently been aggressively marketing its oil among southern and eastern African countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia and South Africa. For Zimbabwe, a member of COMESA, Sudanese oil would come very cheap because it would be available minus tariffs and taxes.

Efforts to get comment from the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe on the Sudan-Zimbabwe oil deal this week failed.

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