PORT SUDAN, Sudan: An engineer at Sudan’s largest oil field said Monday that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces had seized the facility along the country’s southern border, forcing the evacuation of its staff.
Sudan’s energy and petroleum ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported capture of the Heglig field, located in the resource-rich Kordofan region.
“This morning the RSF took control of the field. Our technical teams shut it down and halted production, and the workers were evacuated to South Sudan,” the engineer said by phone from across the border.
Since April of 2023, the RSF has been waging a war with the regular army that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million more and decimated the country’s already fragile infrastructure.
The Heglig field is the country’s largest, and is also the main processing facility for South Sudan’s oil exports, which make up nearly all of Juba’s government revenue.
“The processing plant near the field through which South Sudanese oil passes was also shut down,” the engineer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The army has repeatedly accused the RSF of launching drone strikes on Heglig, prompting authorities to temporarily suspend operations there in August.
Heglig lies in the far south of Sudan’s Kordofan region, which has seen fierce fighting in recent weeks as the two sides wrestle for territory.
A drone attack in South Kordofan state blamed on the RSF hit a kindergarten and a hospital last week, killing dozens of civilians, including children, according to a local official and army-aligned foreign ministry.
In October, the RSF pushed army troops out of their last position in the western Darfur region, putting the military on the defensive as it tries to halt the paramilitary advance through Kordofan and back toward the capital Khartoum.
Sudan is now effectively split in two, with the army holding the north, east and center, and the RSF in control of the west and, with the help of its allies, swathes of the south.
Sudan paramilitary seizes key oil field: engineer
https://arab.news/re5gf
Sudan paramilitary seizes key oil field: engineer
- Sudan’s energy and petroleum ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported capture of the Heglig field
- The Heglig field is the country’s largest, and is also the main processing facility for South Sudan’s oil exports
One killed in attack on oil tankers off Iraq, rescue operation ongoing: authorities
- Iraq’s oil ministry said in a statement on Thursday it had “deep concern” about incidents involving oil tankers in the Gulf, without providing details
BAGHDAD: An attack on two oil tankers near Iraq killed at least one crew member, authorities said on Thursday, as Iran carries out a campaign to disrupt global energy markets.
Farhan Al-Fartousi, from Iraq’s General Company for Ports, told state television that one crew member had been killed and 38 rescued while the “search continues for the missing.”
He did not specify the crew members’ nationalities or provide details on who was behind the attack, which occurred roughly 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the coast.
The Iraqi government’s media cell told national news agency INA that “two tankers were subject to sabotage.”
Iraq’s oil ministry said in a statement on Thursday it had “deep concern” about incidents involving oil tankers in the Gulf, without providing details.
“The safety of navigation in international maritime corridors and energy supply routes must remain free from regional conflicts,” the ministry added.
The Strait of Hormuz — the waterway carrying a fifth of the world’s oil — remains closed to almost all oil tankers, and Iran has vowed that not one liter of oil would be exported from the Gulf while its war with the United States and Israel continues.
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that US forces have struck 28 Iranian mine-laying vessels more than a week into the Middle East war.
Images of a ship at sea with plumes of smoke rising from a huge fire, were broadcast by state television channel Al-Ikhbariya. AFP could not verify the images.
An employee at Iraq’s Basra oil terminal told AFP that it was unclear “whether it was a drone attack or explosive-laden boats.”
The Iraqi State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) confirmed in a statement that two oil tankers were attacked, without providing details on how.
Maltese-flagged oil tanker ZEFYROS was attacked as it was preparing to enter the port of Khor Al-Zoubair, where it would have taken on board an additional 30,000 tons of liquid naphtha — primarily used in petrochemicals, SOMO said.
The second targeted vessel, SAFESEA VISHNU, was sailing under the Marshall Islands flag and was chartered by an Iraqi company, according to SOMO.
The incidents come just hours after the US embassy in Baghdad warned that Iran and Tehran-backed Iraqi armed groups might target US-owned oil facilities in Iraq.
