سودانايل أول صحيفة سودانية رقمية تصدر من الخرطوم
أخبار أخرى
صدرت مؤخرا النسخة الأنجليزية من كتاب السر سيد أحمد (سنوات النفط في السودان) من ناشر في كندا والولايات المتحدة (كي ببليشنج)
والكتاب صدر أونلاين ويمكن لمن يرغب في النسخة الانجليزية الحصول عليها عن طريق أمازون
ويوجد الرابط على الوصلة التالية
http://www.amazon.com/Oil-Years-Sudan-Political-Breakthrough-ebook/dp/B00IRKNLY2/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1394119704&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=alsir+sidamhed
يقول البيان الذي أصدره الناشر ان كتاب (سنوات النفط في السودان) يتناول قصة الذهب الأسود وكيف عمل في البداية على تأجيج الحرب الأهلية في البلاد ثم الدفع بأتجاه السلام ثم انفصال جنوب السودان فيما بعد، كما يمثل عامل النفط دافعا رئيسيا لأقامة العلاقات بين السودان وجنوب السودان على أساس المصلحة المشتركة وبعيدا عن الأيدولوجيا كون جنوب السودان دولة مغلقة ووجود مرافق للعمليات النهائية من خط أنابيب ومراكز معالجة تجعل السودان أفضل طريق لأيصال نفط جنوب السودان الى الاسواق العالمية. (نسخة البيان باللغة الانجليزية مرفقة).
كتب مقدمة الكتاب الدكتور منصور خالد التي أورها بيان الناشر بأكملها، كما أورد شهادات لشخصيات أكاديمية وصحافية من حول العالم: فالبروفيسور أنوش أحتشامي من جامعة (درم) في أنجلترا يقول ان الكتاب يوفر أشمل تحليل للوضع السياسي والمؤسسي للجهد الذي بذل لاستخدام النفط في السودان، كما يمتاز الكتاب بثراء وتنوع في المصادر التي اعتمد عليها مما يتيح فرصة ممتازة للقراءة المعتمدة على ثقافة متميزة.
وقال الدكتور غونار سوربو من (معهد ميشلين) في بيرغن، النرويج ان السر سيد أحمد كتب كتابا عن كيفية نجاح السودان وفي خضم الحرب الأهلية أن يصبح دولة منتجة للنفط، كما تناول الدور الذي لعبته هذه السلعة في تشكيل السياسة السودانية وتضمنمعلومات مهمة عن الاكتشافات النفطية التي قامت بها شركة شيفرون الأمريكية لكن قطفت ثمارها بعد عقدين من الزمان الشركات الآسيوية، الأمر الذي يجعل الكتاب مستحقا للقراءة على نطاق واسع.
ويرى البروفيسور محمد صالح من جامعة (ليدين) في هولندا ان الكتاب يتضمن أكثر المعلومات شمولا وتحليلا متوازنا عن صناعة النفط في السودان مستندة على أساس أكاديمي رصين. ويضيف ان الكتاب جاء في وقته وسيثير نقاشا واسعا بين المهتمين من الأكاديميين وصناع القرار وأركان الصناعة النفطية ومنظمات المجتمع المدني.
أما شيخ الصحافيين السودانيين الأستاذ محجوب محمد صالح فقد وصف الكتاب بأنه نموذج للصحافة الأستقصائية اذ تناول المؤلف موضوعا غاية في التعقيد لكنه أثبت انه على قدر المهمة بسبب خلفيته واهتمامه ومتابعته للقضايا النفطية. والكتاب يتميز بالبحث والأستقصاء العميقين لرواية قصة النفط في السودان والتحديات التي تواجه كلا من السودان وجنوب السودان.
The Key Publishing House Inc.
A102/230-1075 Bay St. Toronto Ontario Canada M5S 2B2
Tel & Fax: 416-935-1790
www.thekeypublish.com
media@thekeypublish.com
30-March-2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
© Alsir Sidahmed
Author Alsir Sidahmed is available for appearances and interviews and can be reached through: The Key Publicity, Heather Smith
e-mail: media@thekeypublish.com
Title: Oil Years in Sudan
Subtitle: Setting the Record Straight
Author: Alsir Sidahmed
Publisher: The Key Publishing House Inc. (www.thekeypublish.com)
e-ISBN: 9781926780597
Subject: Social Science, African Studies, oil & Resources
Release: March-2014
e-Price: $5.99
Dimension: 6×9”
Page count: 200
Available: Amazon Kindle
Synopsis
Oil Years in Sudan narrates the black gold story in the North African country. How it helped initially in fueling then the 16-year old civil war when Khartoum succeeded in exporting oil in 1999. How oil contributed to concluding a peace deal between the North and the South that ended Africa’s longest running civil war in 2005. How it helped push the South opt for separation six years later so as to control fully its hydrocarbon resources and provided basis for a potential viable state economically and how it provides the best chance to base the relationship between Sudan and South Sudan on mutual interest given the fact that South Sudan is a land-locked country and Sudan’s downstream facilities provides the practical way to get South Sudan crude to oil markets.
About the Author
Alsir Sidahmed is a free-lance journalist and media consultant, who spent most of his professional career covering the oil market for various publications inside and outside Sudan. He is also co-author of Sudan published by Routledge in its Middle East Series in 2005 (paperback in 2011) and a contributor to Africa and Energy Security: Global Issues, Local Responses, published by Academia Foundation, 2009
Endorsements
“It is only recently that oil has become an important variable in the political and economic dynamics of the Sudan. While much contemporary analysis has focused on aspects of the rise of Sudan as an oil state in the twentieth first century and the potential of South Sudan as a viable oil economy in its own right this century, the background and context for the role of big oil in this strategically important African country had – till now – been left unexplored. Sidahmed, however, has ably changed all that and in The Oil Years in Sudan he provides the most comprehensive analysis of the political, institutional and structural struggles to extract oil in this country, as well as its pitfalls. Sidahmed’s book is well-sourced and highly educational as it tells the tale of the ‘hows’ and the ‘whys’ in Sudan’s efforts to turn this subsoil deposit into a national asset. An excellent read, based on thorough scholarship.”
–Prof. Anoush Ehteshami, Durham University, United Kingdom
“Alsir Sidahmed has written a book about how Sudan, amidst violent conflict, came to be an oil producing country and the key role played by oil in Sudanese politics as well as the process that led to the independence of South Sudan. The book also contains rich material on how the discoveries made by US based Chevron in the 1970s came to be reaped two decades later by Asian companies,
particularly from China. Alsir’s work deserves a wide readership.”
–Gunnar M. Sørbø, Michelsen Institute, Norway
“Alsir Sidahmed’s book on The Oil Years in Sudan; contains the most informative, analytically balanced and academically sound comprehension of oil discovery in the Sudan and how it has altered Sudan internal land scape, external relations and economic fortunes. Sidahmed must be congratulated for writing the inner-story of Sudan oil, the role of the national and international players who made it possible for the Sudanese elite to triumph in plenty during The Oil Years and languish in despair after South Sudan gained its independence. Is oil a factor in the division of Sudan into South Sudan and Sudan, was its discovery a curse or a blessing for South Sudan and how it will shape the future relationship between the two countries?
This timely book offers food for thought, and will certainly engage a broad array of readers: academics, policy makers, NGOs and civil society activists and governments and and transnational corporations interest in oil business exploration, production, infrastructure and marketing. It is a must read.”
–Prof. Mohamed Salih, University of Leiden, Netherlands
“There is an interesting and intriguing story behind oil exploration, production and export. That story is worth telling and this very well researched and well documented book tells it all. In the fifties of last century Sudan was hoping to discover oil in the Red Sea Coast adjacent to Saudi Arabia or in its north western desert bordering Libya. That hope proved illusive. When two decades later the American Oil Company Chevron discovered oil in the Sudan it was in the south and west of Sudan putting it squarely at the heart of Sudan’s historical conflict area. Since then Sudan’s oil story has been intertwined with story of war and peace. Even after separation of South Sudan it came back to haunt the two neighboring states. Reveling the complex dimensions of this intriguing story was the challenging task undertaken by the author of this book and he proved equal to the task. An investigative journalist by profession he specialized lately in following closely all developments in oil production and marketing. In a well researched book he tells the story of oil in Sudan and the challenges it presents to both Sudans.”
–Mahgoub Mohamed Salih, Editor-in-Chief, Al-Ayam Newspaper, Sudan
Winner of the Golden Pen of Freedom Award
Introduction
By
Dr. Mansour Khalid
The author of this book is an unhurried researcher who does not report an incident without substantiation, or make a judgment without evidence. Many writers do not achieve the hoped for goals because of facile arguments and hasty judgments. Even worse, such an approach to writing implies disrespect for the readers’ intelligence, and a writer who does not respect his readers’ intelligence rarely has any respect for his own. Respect for his readers’ intelligence is an attribute that I have always associated with Alsir Sidahmed as I read his contributions to the Sudanow magazine which used to be published in English in Khartoum in the 1970s, and for decades later I read his articles and commentaries in the London-based Alsharq Al-Awsat newspaper, as well as his reports and articles in Khartoum newspapers.
By choosing the issue of oil, the author has taken up a highly inflammable material. The flames of burned oil do not generate heat only but can also spread to engulf the politics, economy and environment of countries engaged in oil exploration and utilization. Sudan is one such country, where serious exploration of oil – some people call it “black gold” – started in the mid-1970s. The purpose of prospecting for oil then was twofold: first, to meet the country’s demand for this commodity which is essential for achieving relative prosperity for the people, and facilitate the running of a modern state. Second, to put an end
to oil imports that drained the resources of the public treasury. But the most important goal of oil production was to allocate part of the oil revenues for the development of the real engine of growth and inexhaustible resource of agriculture. Sudan is a country endowed with plentiful rain and river water, fertile soil and abundant sunshine. Some sensible Sudanese people, town dwellers and farm land tillers in rural areas alike, were concerned that their rulers’ preoccupation with oil to the exclusion of other resources might end up making their land resemble the land described by the Egyptian poet Abbas Al-Aqaad in his epic ‘Biography
of a Devil’:
Their land is superior to its offspring
Where the harvest is plentiful
And the shadow sleeps not a wink
And they are a shadow upright
Yes, the superiority of the land is in the superiority of its children. However, the subject of oil, in Sudan as well as in other countries, has prompted the stupid question, ‘Is oil a blessing or a curse?’ The source of stupidity is that oil, like any other natural resource, can either be a blessing or a curse depending on how well or badly it is used by those in charge. Do they direct it to the development of their inexhaustible resource, or do they use it as revenue wealth which economists say will inevitably lead to what they call the Dutch disease? Do they utilize it in a manner conducive to the preservation of the environment, and not to the devastation of ecological diversity?
Even though the discourse on revenue-based economy started at the time of the flow of petrodollars into Middle East countries in the 1980s and the dependence of some of these countries on such inflows in a wealth depleting manner, the term has been used to describe some Third World countries, particularly African countries, which are becoming totally dependent on hydrocarbon resources. As evidence of the failure of the OPEC countries
which control close to 50 percent of oil trade in the world, these economists point out that none of these countries is among the strongest economically in the world or whose annual income has equaled that of Holland, the country that has exemplified the economic disease that bears its name. On the other hand, one non-oil exporting country, Turkey, now ranks as the world’s 17th largest economy, thanks to a leadership that recognizes the priorities
of the government.
While the author does not take up these topics directly, he does shed light on the role of politics in oil exploration in Sudan during the years of war and peace. He sought earnestly for answers to urgent questions such as: How were oil revenues utilized? What role did the war play in intensifying the search for oil, not as additional source of wealth and tool for development but foremost as fuel to stoke the fires of war? How has oil production impacted
Sudan’s foreign relations? How has the oil industry affected the natural environment?
There is no doubt that oil was a major factor in united Sudan’s relations with the outside world, east and west, and has become so after the secession of the Southern part of the country. On the other hand, the impact of oil on the environment is an aspect of the oil industry which researchers pay little attention to. It is to the author’s credit that he has examined this aspect, particularly as ‘oil and the environment’ was one the issues which, after a long debate initiated by John Garang, featured prominently in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005. Paragraph 3 of the Wealth Sharing Protocol states that utilization of oil will not achieve sustainable development unless it is used as a non-renewable natural resources that is consistent with:
a) The national interest and public good;
b) The interest of the affected states/regions;
c) The interest of the local population in affected areas;
d) National environmental policies, biodiversity conservation guidelines and cultural protection principles.
The author is certainly not off the mark when he says that this is one of the many issues which did not receive the attention it deserved from the two parties to the agreement at the time of implementation. I believe that one of the consequences of John Garang’s
departure from the political scene was that the war hero did not live to fight the peace battles.
In conclusion, the question of oil preoccupied, and is still preoccupying, people in Sudan. Many writers have written countless articles in newspapers and pieces of research about this issue without real knowledge, causing much harm and failing to enlighten their readers. However, Alsir Sidahmed the author of Oil Years in Sudan has made a great deal of effort in investigating and researching its material.
Dr. Mansour Khalid
Renowned Political Figure in Sudan, Former Foreign Minister,
Vice Chairman of Brundtland Commission on Environment and
Development, Joined Sudan People’s Liberation Movement as Adviser
to its leader John Garang. Author of a number of books in
Arabic and English: Nimeiri and the Revolution of Dis-May, The
Government They Deserve, War and Peace in Sudan: Tale of Two
Countries and others.
