@Golden Times South Sudan
Thursday, 20 November 2025
Trader BB Energy has launched legal action against South Sudan over an undelivered crude cargo, highlighting the mounting commercial risks facing operators in the East African country as it struggles to rebuild its oil sector.
The Part 7 claim — a standard procedure for starting legal proceedings — was filed in a British court on June 27 by BB Energy (Gulf) DMCC, the trading house’s UAE business, against the country’s Ministry of Petroleum, court records showed.
It concerns a 2024 prepayment deal for a shipment of Dar Blend crude, according to a person familiar with the claim, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. The heavy sweet grade is sold to customers in the UAE and Asia, according to data from S&P Global Commodities at Sea.
“At this stage, we have registered the case in the UK Courts to ‘preserve our rights’ because the contract has not been performed by the Ministry of Petroleum,” a BB Energy spokesperson said in a statement to Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights.
“As yet, they have defaulted on delivery. We are currently in the process of serving formal proceedings, however, we are always looking to find an amicable solution, especially considering our long-term interests in the country,” the spokesperson added.
South Sudan’s production has fallen by more than half from 350,000 b/d of crude immediately after independence in 2011 due to underinvestment, floods and bouts of conflict. It produced 140,000 b/d of Nile and Dar blend crude in June, according to the latest Platts OPEC+ Survey from Commodity Insights.
BB Energy expected to receive its cargo after the resumption of South Sudan’s sole export pipeline earlier this year, following a 13-month outage caused by a rupture, but it did not, the source familiar with the claim said.
In the past two years, Dar Blend has been hit by the extended pipeline outage and additional risk for ships docking in Port Sudan — the only export terminal — due to the conflict between warring generals in neighboring Sudan, upon which landlocked South Sudan relies for its exports. In May, drone strikes hit targets in the port city, which is Sudan’s wartime capital and base of operations for the Sudanese army.
One of the people interviewed by Platts with direct knowledge of oil trading in South Sudan alleged that new entrants in the market “have had their commitments honored … at the expense of long term offtakers,” which they said could impact the value of the country’s mainstay Dar Blend crude.
Platts assessed the grade at a $4.10/b discount to Dated Brent on July 25, having generally traded at a premium to the benchmark prior to 2023.
Another person well-versed in the country’s oil sector said there were currently “multiple cases” against South Sudan’s government, which had been “selling [cargoes] spot,” rather than fulfilling prepaid contracts.
“They are between a rock and a hard place, and it has just gone off the rails,” the person said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.
South Sudan’s oil ministry did not respond to requests for comments by email or text over a number of days, including to specific questions regarding preferential access for new market entrants. Calls to the Ministry of Petroleum went unanswered.
BB Energy is understood to be in talks with the government over a resolution, according to a source with direct knowledge of the issue.
High debt
South Sudan was indebted to the tune of $3.72 billion in 2023, according to the IMF, but in April 2024 appeared to have signed a $12 billion cash-for-crude deal with a UAE company tied to a relative of the Gulf state’s ruling family, Platts reported at the time. It was not clear whether the first tranche of funding ever arrived.
The BB Energy filing also comes at a time of acute political strain in the world’s youngest country. Its government is heavily reliant on oil revenues, meaning the pipeline closure took its economy to the brink of collapse.
Indeed, according to the IMF, the South Sudanese economy contracted 27.6% in 2024.
In March, Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol was placed in detention alongside senior military officials aligned with Vice President Riek Machar.
Days later, Machar himself was held at his residence in Juba, prompting fears that the country’s 2013 peace deal would collapse, expediting a return to full-blown civil war.
S&P Global
