20110806
Reuters
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - North Sudan said on Friday it is holding an oil shipment from South Sudan because the new African state has failed to pay custom duties.

Customs authorities in the northern oil export port, Port Sudan, have stopped one shipment because duties had not been paid, a spokesman for the foreign ministry in Khartoum said. He said he did not much how much oil was affected.

"Customs asked for the fees to be paid. They paid last time but not this time," the spokesman said.

He said the action had been the decision of the customs authority and not related to current talks between north and south about sharing oil revenues.

Newly-independent South Sudan has to export its oil via the north because its had no port or refineries of its own.

South Sudan took 75 percent of the country's 500,000 barrels a day of oil when it became independent on July 9 but relies on a northern pipeline to Port Sudan sell the oil.

North and South have failed to reach an agreement on a southern transit fee so far. Until now both sides split the oil equally. Oil is the lifeline of both economies.