Ethiopia: A deal with Sudan
Ethiopia has signed a deal with Sudan to import oil products through the country's Red Sea outlet of Port Sudan.
The executive director of the Ethiopian Petroleum Supplier Enterprise Haile Mariam signed the agreement with Sudan's investment minister Mustafa Osman Ismail in the Sudanese capital Khartoum late Wednesday.
"Sudan is keen to build smart partnership with Ethiopia to improve economic activities between the two neighbors," Ismail was quoted by the state-run Sudan News Agency as saying Wednesday.
Mariam said an Ethiopian bank would be established in Sudan to address the problems of remittances, investment and commercial exchanges between the two countries.
Ethiopia, facing growing energy demands, lost its port of Massawa following the secession of Eritrea in 1991.
Depending on the port of Djibouti, land-locked Ethiopia wants to diversify its sea routes.
Ethiopia imported a total of 42,502 b/d of oil in 2010, according to figures provided by the Abidjan-based African Development Bank in 2014. It also imported up to 85% of its oil supply from the Sudan in 2012, before canceling its contract, according to media sources in Ethiopia.