Sudan diverts fuel imports as protests persist

Sudan is being forced to divert incoming fuel supplies to neighbouring Red Sea ports after ongoing protests in the country's east saw all available products storage capacity in Port Sudan fill-up.

The protests that broke out last month continue to block the passage of goods like fuel, medicine and wheat from Port Sudan into the rest of the country.

Fuel storage facilities at Port Sudan are now at full capacity, so to avoid congestion Sudan began diverting cargoes to other ports in the Red Sea, Sudan's presidential spokeswoman Daila El Roubi told Argus. Diesel cargoes have been mostly diverted to Egypt and then trucked to the Sudanese capital Khartoum, the site of Sudan's sole 100,000 b/d refinery.

But at least nine vessels carrying 265,000t of diesel and three vessels carrying 62,000t of gasoline continue to float near Port Sudan, according to Vortexa, in the hope of discharging if the protests cease. Sudan typically imports most of its fuel requirements from the Mideast Gulf.

The government expects to reach a lasting solution with the protesters in the next few days."I call on our people in the east to open the port and roads and to resort to direct dialogue, so that the country's security, strength and sovereignty are not harmed", said Sudan's prime minister Abdallah Hamdok on 15 October.

But the tensions do not seem to be de-escalating just yet as crowds took to the streets of Khartoum over the weekend, calling for the military to take the power from the Hamdok-led transitional government.

Sudan has been taking steps towards transitioning to democracy since 2019, after the long-time president Omar al-Bashir was ousted. Since then the country has been run by a politically divided alliance.

The transitional government has been working on a series of IMF-recommended economic reforms intended to support the economy and reduce Sudan's debt. But the public discontent with the transitional government has been growing ever since its decision to cut fuel subsidies earlier this year, culminating with a failed coup attempt on September 21 and protests that followed.

Hamdok said the current situation in Sudan is the "worst and most dangerous crisis that threatens the transition", adding that his government is "committed to completing the civil democratic transition and handing over the country to an elected government through free and fair elections under a democratic system".

By Ieva Paldaviciute, Mercy Matsiko and Sarah Raffoul