Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — South Sudan plans to end its energy dependence on the north.

Officials said the South Sudan government intends to build a refinery
and crude oil pipeline. They said the pipeline would head south through
Kenya rather than north, through the Republic of Sudan.

“We had to look for alternative route for exporting the oil after we have reached a deadlock with Sudan, which is exaggerating in the oil transit fees,” South Sudan Information Minister Barnaba Benjamin said.

“We have started practical steps to rapidly construct a pipeline through eastern Africa, namely via Kenya and Uganda.”

Over the last month, the Khartoum regime has blocked South Sudan’s oil exports of nearly 375,000 barrels of oil per day through the pipeline in the Republic of Sudan.

The Juba government said it was halting oil exports through the north and would complete a pipeline by the end of 2012.

  Barnaba Benjamin, Juba, Kenya, Khartoum, pipeline, pipeline through Kenya, Republic of Sudan, S. Sudan plans end run around Khartoum with own refinery, Uganda