Sudan produces approximately 460,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and the vast majority — roughly 403,000 bpd — is pumped along a disputed border zone between Sudan and Southern Sudan. Under the terms of the peace treaty that ended Sudan's latest civil war in 2005, both sides are to equally share oil revenues from this disputed region. A looming referendum on Southern Sudanese independence, currently scheduled for Jan. 2011, requires that the border be demarcated once and for all, so both sides are scrambling to push the line as far south or north as possible in order to claim a larger share of the oil wealth. Khartoum possesses leverage over the south, however, because the only pipelines in the country find their sole outlet to the outside world at Port Sudan, located deep in northern territory. So even if the south comes out ahead in the border demarcation, it will be left with a lot of oil and not a lot to do with it.
