Summary
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SOUTH SUDAN 2004: A SURVEY OF THE HUMANITARIAN FUELS SITUATION AND PROSPECTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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The anticipated increase in humanitarian activities, coupled with the requirements of United Nations peacekeeping forces and increased agricultural, mining, oil exploration and commercial activities in South Sudan following the implementation of a peace agreement between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army will place great strain on the ability of the existing fuel supply infrastructure to meet the needs of the region.
The two main fuels required for operations in South Sudan are Jet A-1 aviation fuel and Diesel, otherwise known as automotive gasoil.
All fuels for South Sudan as well as for Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and parts of Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo are imported through the Kenya port of Mombasa, and transported overland by pipeline, rail or truck, or a combination of these means. These transportation systems are barely adequate for the task. They are able to serve current needs for the region, but it is doubtful that they would be able to cope with a significant increase in demand.
Although fuels are produced in indigenous northern Sudanese refineries from developed oilfields in the centre of Sudan, the capacity of these refineries may be insufficient to supply both the north and the south. In any event, it will be some time before north-south confidence is adequate to allow such supply. As such, the only source of supply for fuels for South Sudan for the foreseeable future will be through Mombasa.
Presently, Kenya Government revenue regulations that prohibit export fuel from being transported by road tanker, in order to protect the Kenyan treasury from duty-free export fuel being diverted for domestic use. This greatly limits the logistical capacity for fuels required in South Sudan.
Operations within South Sudan depend very heavily on drummed fuel supplies. The rising cost of steel used in the manufacture of these drums, together with the high cost of fuels, is causing significant increases in the cost of providing fuel to operations. The situation is further exacerbated by a very tight situation with respect to the number of drums in circulation required to keep the system functioning, particularly for aviation fuel.
At an operational level, we recommend that the humanitarian community implement bulk fuel installations for aviation fuel at selected airfields, and that de-fuelling equipment be purchased for airfields within South Sudan capable of taking larger C-130 type aircraft, so that fuel may be downloaded to the these installations, so as to augment supply overland. This solution has the potential to both reduce the overall cost of fuels and to increase the availability of fuels. It should also improve air safety through better fuel quality assurance.
We further recommend that the humanitarian community support the establishment of a voucher system for ground fuel supplies in South Sudan, whereby the fuels are provided by a contractor or contractors at bulk fuel installations at selected locations, in return for vouchers prepaid in Kenya or Uganda.
At the strategic level, we recommend that an all-parties conference, bringing together the humanitarian community servicing South Sudan from Kenya, fuels industry representatives in Kenya, the Kenyan Government, the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and perhaps Kenya Railways, Uganda Railways and Kenya Pipeline Company, be convened to address the current problems in the fuel supply infrastructure. A major topic of this conference should be the question of eliminating the Kenyan Government’s ban on using road transport for export fuels, whilst still providing protection for the Government’s revenue.
On the development front, in the event that oilfields are discovered and developed to production in the south, we recommend that major donors give due consideration to financing the infrastructure and supplies necessary to introduce LPG cooking gas into South Sudan as an economically viable alternative to existing fuels.