afrol News, 30 November - Ethiopia saves millions of dollars every year by importing from neighbouring Sudan than using Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, Nile Petroleum Company (NPC) said in a statement. Ethiopia imports 80 percent of its total demands for petroleum from Sudan.

According to the statement, Sudan’s export of Petroleum products to Ethiopia has eased the Horn of Africa country’s massive cost on oil imports.

“Ethiopia spends over 50 percent of its total export earnings to meet nation’s fuel demand and Sudan has now become the major source for the fact that it is only next door,” the statement said.

The Ethiopian petroleum enterprise said the country has managed to save millions of dollars every year by importing from neighboring Sudan, instead of exploring other channels that are costly to the government.

The NPC director, Khidir Al-Badri, also said that the company is assigned to prepare country’s rich ethanol source for the use of fuel. “The bio-fuel development and usage strategy is expected to make the oil company a leading stalk holder in the Ethiopian oil energy market,” he said.

According to the director, the company currently has opened fuel stations in the capital Addis Ababa and in other major cities of Ethiopia.

He further said that Nile Petroleum Company has established partnership with a German company for production of petroleum lubricants that are complying with the international standards to meet requirements of the Ethiopian market.

Ethiopia and Sudan have a number of agreements on cultural, social economic, security, education, health and political matters. Many other cooperation agreements are also signed between the two neighbours to enhance the people-to-people ties, to harmonise the two peoples living along the common border and also aimed at fostering trans-boundary trade beyond their official trade.

The vast country imports agricultural products and livestock from Ethiopia, making it one of the biggest importing countries of Ethiopian products.

Sudan is now one of the largest oil producer in the sub-Saharan Africa, next to Nigeria and Angola. Recent figures indicate that the country currently produces over 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

By staff writer

© afrol News

Related pages and feature

Current afrol News Top Stories