Landlocked South Sudan said it has a struck a deal with Sudan over oil exports through Sudan's pipelines, but the agreement won't go into effect until border issues are resolved, Khartoum officials said.

In a statement Saturday, South Sudan's government said that it will pay approximately $9.48 a barrel to transport its fuel through Sudan's pipelines.

The White House praised the deal and encouraged agreement on humanitarian issues as well.

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South Sudan says the agreement on pipeline transportation fees will last for three and a half years, after which the countries may negotiate lower rates or South Sudan, which expects to have constructed a pipeline through Kenya, will stop using Sudan's pipeline.

A row over the sharing of the two countries' once-unified oil industry prompted South Sudan to shut down its 350,000-thousand-barrel-a-day oil production. Oil also sparked a dangerous military confrontation between the two sides in April, when South Sudan captured the disputed town of Heglig, which is responsible for more than half of Sudan's oil production.

The U.N. Security Council had given the African neighbors until Thursday to resolve all conflicts left over from South Sudan's secession a year ago under a 2005 peace agreement.

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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who on Friday urged the two nations to resolve bitter disputes that earlier this year pushed the countries to the brink of war, welcomed announcement of the oil pact.

“This agreement reflects leadership and a new spirit of compromise on both sides,” she said in a prepared statement obtained by NBC News.

“As I said in Juba yesterday, the interests of their people were at stake. … The future of South Sudan is now brighter.”

"For Sudan, too, this agreement offers a way out of the extreme economic stress it is now experiencing,” Clinton said. “If Sudan would now also take the steps to peace in Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur, and if it will respect the rights of all citizens, it can likewise give its people a brighter future.”

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Clinton is on an 11-day tour of Africa.

President Barack Obama, in a White House statement obtained by NBC News, said, "The leaders of Sudan and South Sudan deserve congratulations for reaching agreement and finding compromise on such an important issue, and I applaud the efforts of the international community which came together to encourage and support the parties in finding a resolution. ... I am also encouraged by the announcement of a possible agreement on humanitarian access to Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, and urge the immediate implementation of this agreement to provide urgently needed humanitarian assistance to people in these areas."

The oil deal was announced in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki said, "It's an (oil) agreement about all of the matters. The issues that were outstanding were charges for transportation, for processing, transit," Mbeki, the former South African president, told reporters.

"What will remain (now)...is to then discuss the steps as to when the oil companies should be asked to prepare for the resumption of production and export," Mbeki said.

He gave no time frame, saying only the parties had until Sept. 22 to resolve border security and other conflicts.

The two sides, deeply mistrustful of each other, have often not implemented previous agreements and still need to mark their 1,200-mile border and resolve charges both have made of supporting rebels in the other’s territory.

This article includes reporting by Reuters and The Associated Press.

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PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria -- Pirates attacked a ship being used by an oil servicing company in waters off southeastern Nigeria on Saturday, killing two Nigerian naval guards and kidnapping four foreigners, the navy said.

"The incident was somewhere around the Niger Delta, where an oil servicing company was attacked by gunmen. We lost two of our men and four expatriates were abducted, one Malaysian, one Iranian," navy spokesman Commodore Kabir Aliyu said.

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He said a Thai and an Indonesian were also taken, but had no immediate further details.

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Security in the Delta has improved since militant activity shut down nearly half of Nigeria's oil output around the middle of the last decade, thanks to an amnesty between various militant factions and the government.

But the situation remains volatile and inflamed by organized crime and local political rivalries.

Piracy and kidnapping in the Delta and offshore are common, and West Africa's oil-rich Gulf of Guinea is second only to the waters around Somalia for the risk of pirate attacks, which drives up shipping insurance costs.

They are seen as more of a criminal enterprise making huge sums for armed gangs than as anything political.

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Nigerian pirates usually release kidnapped crew members after their cargo has been looted, rather than hold them for ransom.

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DIYARBAKIR, Turkey -- An explosion and fire has shut down twin pipelines that carry oil from Iraq to the Mediterranean, an official said Saturday. No one was hurt in the blast.

The explosion late Friday hit a section of a pipeline that carries oil from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, near the southeastern town of Midyat, Energy Ministry official said. A second line that runs parallel was not damaged, but was also shut down as a precaution, the official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of government rules, said the cause of the blast was under investigation but was most likely the result of sabotage.

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The explosion started a fire at 11 p.m. (5 p.m. ET) on Friday, security sources said. Firefighters were battling to put out the blaze.

Officials blamed the attack on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist group that has claimed responsibility for past attacks on the 600-mile pipeline.

Firat News, a website with ties to the PKK, also said the outlawed group was behind the attack.

Insurgents in Iraq have disrupted the transport of oil on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, the country's largest, in the past, and technical faults on the 35-year-old link, which consists of two pipes, have also cut flows.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984, and more than 40,000 people, mainly Kurds, have died in the conflict. It has claimed responsibility for attacks on other natural-gas and oil pipelines in what it has said is a campaign to target Turkey's strategic assets.

It was not clear when oil flows to Ceyhan would resume.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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LAGOS, Nigeria -- Ninety-five people died after a fuel tanker crashed into other vehicles, caught fire and exploded, a Nigerian government agency said Thursday.

Most of the victims had rushed to the truck to scoop fuel in Okobe, a town in the oil-rich Rivers State in the south of the country, a spokesman for the emergency management agency said. Yushau Shuaib added at least 18 others were injured.

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"We have cordoned off the area to ensure that miscreants do not take laws into their hands. We also want to know what exactly caused the inferno,’" Ben Ugwuegbulam, spokesman of the Rivers Police Command, told the Daily Times Nigeria.

Blasts hit northern Nigeria churches

The tanker crashed into three other vehicles while traveling on an east-west road, the Daily Times reported, citing the Federal Road Safety Commission.

The tanker did not immediately burst into flames after the collision, the paper said, and many people scrambled to the scene to collect fuel. 

The West African nation of Nigeria is a top exporter of crude to the United States and other countries.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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The United States on Thursday gave China and Singapore six-month reprieves from sanctions over importing Iranian oil.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton commended the two Asian countries for "significantly" reducing the oil purchases. Eighteen other governments have received similar waivers designed to pressure Iran to curb its nuclear program by choking off its oil revenues.

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The West believes Iran aims to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear activities are solely for peaceful purposes such as generating electricity and medical isotopes.

Reductions by all 20 countries showed that Iran was paying a high price for its nuclear program, Clinton said.

"Their cumulative actions are a clear demonstration to Iran's government that Iran's continued violation of its international nuclear obligations carries an enormous economic cost," Clinton said in a statement.

“According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Iran's crude oil exports in 2011 were approximately 2.5 million barrels per day, and have dropped to roughly 1.5 million barrels per day, which in real terms means almost $8 billion in lost revenues every quarter,” she said. “When the European Union oil embargo goes into effect July 1, Iran's leaders will understand even more fully the urgency of the choice they face and the unity of the international community.”

Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, India, Malaysia, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Turkey earlier received waivers.

The latest waivers came as an American deadline arrived for banks to stop processing petroleum transactions with Tehran.

China buys up to a fifth of Iran's oil exports and Singapore buys Iranian fuel oil.

The Republican chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said the Obama administration was giving Beijing a "free pass."

"The administration likes to pat itself on the back for supposedly being strong on Iran sanctions," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, of Florida. "But actions speak louder than words, and today the administration has granted a free pass to Iran's biggest enabler, China, which purchases more Iranian crude than any other country."

Technical talks over Iran’s nuclear program resume in Turkey next week.

This article includes reporting by Reuters and The Associated Press. 

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A Nigerian legislator who uncovered a $6.8 billion scam in state fuel subsidy payments has been suspended while police investigate claims he demanded a bribe from a fuel trader, in exchange for keeping him off the list.

Farouk Lawan's parliamentary probe blew the whistle on one of the biggest corruption scandals in Nigeria's history in April, revealing a web of collusion between oil ministry officials and fuel marketers to claim subsidy payments for billions of gallons of fuel that was never delivered.

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But allegations that he demanded - and took some of - a $3 million bribe from one of Nigeria's richest oil tycoons Femi Otedola to scrub his name off the list have cast doubt on the whole report.

TROMSO, Norway -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton boarded a research ship on Saturday to tour the Arctic, where big powers are vying for vast deposits of oil, gas and minerals that are becoming available as the polar ice recedes. 

The top U.S. diplomat took the unusual step of visiting Tromso, a Norwegian town in the Arctic Circle, to dramatize U.S. interests in a once inaccessible region whose resources are up for grabs as the sea ice melts with climate change.  

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"From a strategic standpoint, the Arctic has an increasing geopolitical importance as countries vie to protect their rights and extend their influence," Clinton told reporters in Oslo before making the nearly two-hour flight north to Tromso. 

"We want to work with Norway and the Arctic Council to help manage these changes and to agree on what would be, in effect, the rules of the road in the Arctic, so new developments are economically sustainable and environmentally responsible," she added. 

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic holds about 13 percent of the world's undiscovered conventional oil and 30 percent of its undiscovered natural gas. 

 Clinton to assert U.S. claim in scramble for Arctic

Beyond the energy resources, as the ice melts Arctic sea passages are opening for longer periods each year, cutting thousands of miles off trade routes between Europe and Asia. 

On an eight-day trip to Scandinavia, the Caucasus and Turkey, Clinton is the latest high-profile visitors to the Arctic as it enjoys unprecedented political and economic power. 

While energy development costs could be twice as high as those of conventional onshore resources, that has not stopped of the oil industry's top players from moving in. 

Eco-campaigners condemn rush for oil
Exxon Mobil is working with Russia's Rosneft to develop blocks in the Kara Sea, off Siberia, despite the presence of sea ice for up to 300 days a year.  Russia's Gazprom is also working with Total of France and Norway's Statoil on the Shtokman gas field. 

But the rush for oil and gas has brought condemnation from environment campaigners and those who say the rights of local people risk being trampled. 

Environmental activists say the Arctic challenges require much more aggressive action on everything from fishing quotas to international standards for oil and gas development in a pristine, delicate region. 

Only about 4 million people live in Arctic areas, leaving local interest groups weak and creating a risk of uncontrolled development, a challenge for the Arctic Council, the advisory forum of eight nations formed in 1996 to promote cooperation. 

The council includes the United States, Canada, Russia, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Denmark, which handles foreign affairs for Greenland, as well as groups representing indigenous people directly affected as ice and snow retreat. 

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

KOLKATA, India - The United States will seek assurances that India will reduce its purchases of oil from sanctions-hit Iran during a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the South Asian giant this week, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday.

Clinton started a three-day trip to India on Sunday that will coincide with a visit by a large Iranian trade delegation, as India walks a tightrope of strengthening ties with ally the United States and sating its fast-growing energy needs.

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She arrived in India from a 24-hour visit to Bangladesh, where NBC News reported that she visited the US Embassy in Dhaka to thank worker and expressed “hurt” at a local opinion poll that showed most people believe the U.S. is anti Muslim.

During her visit, Clinton will also make the case for the country to open its supermarket sector to foreign chains such as U.S. giant Wal-Mart Stores - a major economic reform that has stalled under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government.

India has publicly rejected Western sanctions but has pushed refiners to cut imports of oil from Iran by 15-20 percent - enough, it hopes, to win a waiver from Washington.

The United States in March granted exemptions to Japan and 10 European Union nations from its sanctions, which are aimed at pressuring Iran to end its nuclear programme. India and China, Iran's biggest buyers of crude, remain on a list at risk if they do not cut oil imports "substantially".

"Our assessment is India is making good progress but we really need to receive assurances that they are going to continue to make good progress," a senior U.S. official, travelling with Clinton, told reporters.

The 56-member trade delegation, led by the president of Iran's chamber of commerce, will also arrive on Sunday for another round of talks on how the two can trade via a rupee mechanism set up to skirt sanctions. A previous trade mission of Indian businesses to Iran in March had proved unproductive.

"These are not going to be strategic trades of any kind," the U.S. official said. "So I don't think that we are too concerned about this, but we'll obviously want to hear from the government what they see as the focus of this trade delegation."

Relations between the United States and India have blossomed in recent years, especially during the presidency of George W. Bush, which signed a landmark civilian nuclear pact with India. But irritants, especially over trade and investment barriers, have raised temperatures of late.

Clinton arrives in India leaving behind her a stormy visit to China, which saw Beijing and Washington tussle over the fate of a blind Chinese human rights activist who had escaped 19 months of house arrest and fled to the U.S. embassy.

From Kolkata, Clinton will travel to New Delhi on Monday to meet Singh. Afghanistan and India's controversial proposals on retroactive taxation are likely talking points, Indian sources told Reuters last week.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Spain threatened economic retaliation against Argentina Tuesday after Buenos Aires took control of an oil company said to be worth $18 billion.

Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner replaced the chief executive officer of oil firm YPF -- the country's biggest firm -- and said she would send a bill to congress to take a 51 percent stake in the company, the Bloomberg news agency reported.

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Spanish oil firm Repsol is the major shareholder in YPF and it said it would seek compensation on the bases that YPF was worth $18 billion. However, its shares dropped by more than eight percent Tuesday, Reuters said.

"With this attitude, this hostility from the Argentine authorities, there will be consequences that we'll see over the next few days. They will be in the diplomatic field, the industrial field, and on energy," Spanish industry minister Jose Manuel Soria said, according to Reuters.

He added that the government would take "clear and decisive" measures, according to Bloomberg.

Madrid called in the Argentinean ambassador in a rapidly escalating row over the nationalization order, Reuters said.

Fernandez: I'm 'not a thug'
Fernandez's move delighted many of her compatriots but alarmed some foreign governments and investors. 

"This president isn't going to respond to any threats ... because I represent the Argentine people. I'm the head of state, not a thug," she said, according to Reuters. 

Fernandez said the government would ask Congress, which she controls, to approve a bill to expropriate a controlling 51 percent stake in the company by seizing shares held exclusively by Repsol, saying energy was a "vital resource." 

"If this [the YPF's] policy continues -- draining fields dry, no exploration and practically no investment -- the country will end up having no viable future, not because of a lack of resources but because of business policies," she said. 

Repsol described Argentina's move as "clearly unlawful and seriously discriminatory." "This battle is not over," Repsol chairman Antonio Brufau said. 

Spanish media condemned the Argentinean action, which Reuters said was believed to be the biggest nationalization in the natural resources field since the seizure of Russia's Yukos a decade ago. 

Right-wing newspaper La Razon carried a photograph of Fernandez on its front page in a pool of oil with the headline: "Kirchner's Dirty War", referring to her full name. The business newspaper La Gaceta de los Negocios branded the takeover "an act of pillage". 

On the left, El Periodico spoke of "The New Evita", pointing out that Fernandez had announced the nationalization in a room decorated with a portrait of Eva Peron, the actress who was married to a president and revered by many Argentineans for her populist politics. 

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