Heglig هجلیج (Arabic) Panthou | |
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Town | |
Coordinates: 9°59′58″N29°23′55″E / 9.99944°N 29.39861°E | |
Country | Sudan |
State | South Kordofan |
Heglig Airport | |||||||||||||||
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Summary | |||||||||||||||
Airport type | Public / military | ||||||||||||||
Serves | Heglig | ||||||||||||||
Elevation AMSL | 1,327 ft / 404 m | ||||||||||||||
Map | |||||||||||||||
Runways | |||||||||||||||
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Heglig, or Panthou (also spelled Heglieg or Pandthow), is a small town at the border between the South Kordofan state of Sudan and the Unity State in South Sudan. The entirety of Heglig is claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan, but administered by Sudan. The area was contested during the Sudanese Civil War. In mid-April 2012, South Sudan's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) captured the Heglig oil field from Sudan. [1] Sudan took it back at the Second Battle of Heglig ten days later. [2]
Heglig is the Arabic name of the "desert date", the fruit of the Balanites aegyptiaca tree, which is found in most parts of Africa and the Middle East. [3] Sudanese Sufis use heglig ( lalob ) seeds to make rosaries. Lalob is also a favorite food for camels, goats, sheep and cattle. South Sudan does not recognize the name Heglig for the town. During the 10-day occupation by the SPLA, South Sudan restored the name of the town Panthou, a Dinka translation of the word heglig. Panthou is a combination of two words in Dinka; "Pand" which mean the area or home and "Thou" which is the desert date tree, as such Panthou means land or home of desert's date. There are many places around the Dinka areas that have the name of Panthou.[ citation needed ]
Heglig is situated within the Muglad Basin, a rift basin which contains much of South Sudan's proven oil reserves. The Heglig oil field was first developed in 1996 by Arakis Energy (now part of Talisman Energy).[ citation needed ] Today it is operated by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company. [4] Production at Heglig is reported to have peaked in 2006 and is now in decline. [5] The Heglig oil field is connected to Khartoum and Port Sudan via the Greater Nile Oil Pipeline.
In July 2009, the international organization, Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) redefined the boundaries of Abyei, a county that lies between South Sudan and Sudan. The decision placed the Heglig and Bamboo oilfields out of Abyei boundary but did not specify to be belong to the Sudan province of South Kordofan, nor to Upper Nile region, South Sudan and also the decision did not specify oil sharing. The government of Sudan claimed that area is belong to its country since it was ruled to be out of Abyei boundary by PCA and announced they would not share any oil revenue with the Government of South Sudan, emphasizing that the PCA established that Heglig was part of the north. The document of the PCA only indicated that the Heglig or Panthou area is not part of Abyei.
There was fighting in the area during the 2012 Heglig Crisis, both the First Battle of Heglig and Second Battle of Heglig.
Heglig Airport hosts three Sudanese Air Force helicopter squadrons (Mil Mi-8/Mil Mi-17). [6] The airport's runways are both gravel.
The economy of Sudan is largely based on agriculture and oil exports, with additional revenue coming from mining and manufacturing. GDP growth registered more than 10% per year in 2006 and 2007. Sudan had $30.873 billion by gross domestic product as of 2019, and has been working with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to implement macroeconomic reforms, including a managed float of the exchange rate. Sudan began exporting crude oil in the last quarter of 1999.
Unity State, also known as Western Upper Nile, is a state in South Sudan. Unity State is in the Greater Upper Nile region. Unity is inhabited predominantly by two ethnic groups: the Nuer majority, and the Dinka minority.
West Kordofan is one of the 18 wilayat or provinces of Sudan. In 2006 it had an area of 111,373 km2 and an estimated population of approximately 1,320,405. Al-Fulah is the capital of the state.
The Messiria, known also under the name of Misseriya Arabs, are a branch of the Baggara ethnic grouping of Arab tribes. Their language is Sudanese Arabic. Numbering over one million, the Baggara are the second largest ethnic group in Western Sudan, extending into Eastern Chad. They are primarily nomadic cattle herders and their journeys are dependent upon the seasons of the year. The use of the term Baggara carries negative connotations as slave raiders, so they prefer to be called instead Messiria.
The Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC) is a petroleum exploration and production company operating in Sudan. It was incorporated on 18 June 1997 and undertook construction of the Greater Nile Oil Pipeline which links Sudan's inland oil fields with refineries at Khartoum and Port Sudan.
A referendum took place in Southern Sudan from 9 to 15 January 2011, on whether the region should remain a part of Sudan or become independent. The referendum was one of the consequences of the 2005 Naivasha Agreement between the Khartoum central government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M).
The Abyei Area is an area of 10,546 km2 or 4,072 sq mi on the border between South Sudan and Sudan that has been accorded "special administrative status" by the 2004 Protocol on the Resolution of the Abyei Conflict in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the Second Sudanese Civil War. The capital of the Abyei Area is Abyei Town. Under the terms of the Abyei Protocol, the Abyei Area is considered, on an interim basis, to be simultaneously part of both the Republic of South Sudan and Republic of Sudan, effectively a condominium.
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement, also known as the Naivasha Agreement, was an accord signed on 9 January 2005, by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Government of Sudan. The CPA was meant to end the Second Sudanese Civil War, develop democratic governance countrywide, and share oil revenues. It also set a timetable for a Southern Sudanese independence referendum.
The Muglad Basin is a large rift basin in Northern Africa. The basin is situated within southern Sudan and South Sudan, and it covers an area of approximately 120,000 square kilometres (46,000 sq mi) across the two nations. It contains a number of hydrocarbon accumulations of various sizes, the largest of which are the Heglig and Unity oil fields. During the 1960s and 1970s, Chevron made the first oil discoveries in the basin near the towns of Bentiu, Malakal, and Muglad. Taken together, the Muglad and Melut rift basins account for the majority of Sudan's known oil reserves.
The Melut Basin is a rift basin in South Sudan, extending into Ethiopia, where it is called the Gambella basin. Melut is situated in the Upper Nile and Jonglei, south of the capital of Sudan, Khartoum and east of the river Nile. Some parts of the Melut contain several known hydrocarbon accumulations, although oil exploration, as elsewhere in Sudan and South Sudan, has been hindered by instability and conflict. The largest oil field in the Basin is the Great Palogue Field in South Sudan, with estimated reserves of 900 million barrels. The Melut oil export pipeline travels 1,380 km from Palogue to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, and has been on stream since June 2006.
The Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile was an armed conflict in the Sudanese states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement–North (SPLM-N), a northern affiliate of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in South Sudan. After some years of relative calm following the 2005 agreement which ended the second Sudanese civil war between the Sudanese government and SPLM rebels, fighting broke out again in the lead-up to South Sudan independence on 9 July 2011, starting in South Kordofan on 5 June and spreading to the neighboring Blue Nile state in September. SPLM-N, splitting from newly independent SPLM, took up arms against the inclusion of the two southern states in Sudan with no popular consultation and against the lack of democratic elections. The conflict is intertwined with the War in Darfur, since in November 2011 SPLM-N established a loose alliance with Darfuri rebels, called Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF).
The history of South Sudan comprises the history of the territory of present-day South Sudan and the peoples inhabiting the region.
Bilateral relations between South Sudan and the Sudan were officially started on 9 July 2011 following South Sudan's independence. Sudan became the first country in the world to recognize the independence of South Sudan. However, relations between South Sudan and Sudan have still been poor, with both sides supporting rebel groups in the other's territory.
The Adar oilfield, also known as the Adar Yale, Adar Yeil or Adaril field, is an oilfield situated in the Melut in South Sudan estimated to contain about 276 million barrels (43,900,000 m3) of oil. The Chevron Corporation discovered the Adar Yale field in 1981, shortly before the start of the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005). Soon after Chevron had suspended operations in 1984, Sudanese government troops began attacking civilian settlements in the area, burning the houses and driving the people away, and in the late 1990s, Nuer militias from Nasir helped the army in clearing away the people to make way for the roads and infrastructure of the oilfield.
Ethnic violence in South Sudan has a long history among South Sudan's varied ethnic groups. South Sudan has 64 tribes with the largest being the Dinka, who constitute about 35% of the population and predominate in government. The second largest are the Nuers. Conflict is often aggravated among nomadic groups over the issue of cattle and grazing land and is part of the wider Sudanese nomadic conflicts.
Block 5A is an oil concession in South Sudan. After oil field development began during the Second Sudanese Civil War, Block 5A was the scene of extensive fighting as rival militias struggled for control. Out of an original population of 240,000, an estimated 12,000 were killed or died of starvation and 160,000 were displaced by force. Production started in 2006. There is evidence that the environmentally sensitive marshlands beside the Nile are becoming polluted.
The Heglig Crisis was a brief war fought between the countries of Sudan and South Sudan in 2012 over oil-rich regions between South Sudan's Unity and Sudan's South Kordofan states. South Sudan invaded and briefly occupied the small border town of Heglig before being pushed back by the Sudanese army. Small-scale clashes continued until an agreement on borders and natural resources was signed on 26 September, resolving most aspects of the conflict.
The following lists events that happened during 2011 in Sudan.
The Ruweng Administrative Area is an administrative area in South Sudan. The area was known as Ruweng State between 2 October 2015 and 22 February 2020 when it was a state of South Sudan.
Kuol D. Kuol is a former South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SPLA) general and the chief administrator of the Abyei Area since June 29, 2020.