{{South Sudan said it has scaled down oil production from 200,000 to 160,000 barrels per day as former civil war foe Sudan demands a full shutdown next month.}}
The Sudanese government said Juba was still supporting an insurgency in the Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan states.
“We have received a letter from Khartoum that says they are going ahead to stop oil from flowing through their country,” Mawien Makol Arik, the South Sudan foreign ministry spokesman, said.
“Production has to go down until it stops. It is Sudan shutting the production not us,” he told Africa Review.
Mr Mawien said the letter wants the pipelines shut by August 7, unless Juba stops alleged support to the rebels.
Juba has repeatedly denied that it supports the rebels.
Mr Mawien said South Sudan remained committed to the nine cooperation agreements the two countries signed last month on oil production, security, citizenship, border demarcation and the status of the disputed Abyei region, among others.
The new shutdown could hamper growth in both struggling economies.
South Sudan relied 98 per cent on revenues from oil before the shutdown in January 2012.
Sudan also earns vital hard currency from the sale of South Sudan’s oil.
NMG
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