RSF Seizes Heglig: Sudan’s Largest Oil Field Falls, Pushing Civil War Into Perilous New Phase

By: Juba Global News Network
Published: December 8, 2025
Author: James N, Senior East Africa Security Correspondent

In what’s shaping up to be probably the most significant shift in Sudan’s 20-month civil war, fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have taken complete control of Heglig town and its vast oil facilities in West Kordofan state. This happened in the very early hours of Sunday, December 7, 2025. Heglig’s fall—Sudan’s top-producing oil field and the crucial node for nearly all of South Sudan’s crude exports—deals a devastating economic punch to the Khartoum-based Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) government and, at the same time, threatens South Sudan’s financial survival.

Witnesses, oil field employees, and RSF videos all confirm: paramilitary fighters swept through the last SAF defenses after a three-day offensive that kicked off with their capture of the nearby Kharasana airstrip on December 4. By Sunday’s dawn, RSF columns were already filming themselves inside the Central Processing Facility (CPF), hoisting their white-and-green flags over pump stations, grinning next to pipelines that, when running full tilt, push more than 100,000 barrels per day of Dar Blend crude.

The Ultimate Prize

Heglig—referred to as Panthou by South Sudan—has always been one of the most disputed stretches of land on the Sudan–South Sudan border. Even though the Permanent Court of Arbitration handed it to Sudan in 2009, both countries still claim it, and control has changed hands more than once since South Sudan’s independence in 2011. For Sudan, Heglig used to account for about half of national output before the 2011 split, and despite losing most southern fields, it’s still Khartoum’s biggest domestic prize, producing an estimated 35,000–40,000 barrels daily of Nile Blend crude, piped north to Port Sudan.

For South Sudan, the situation is even more dire. Over 95 percent of Juba’s government income comes from oil—nearly all of it pumped from Unity and Upper Nile states, up through Heglig’s installations, and then along the 1,400-kilometre Petrodar pipeline all the way to the Bashayer terminal on the Red Sea. The transit and processing fees South Sudan pays to Sudan, renegotiated repeatedly since a 2012 agreement, remain Khartoum’s largest single source of hard currency.

Immediate Shutdown and Evacuation

A senior engineer at the Greater Pioneer Operating Company (GPOC)—a Chinese-Malaysian-Sudanese partnership running the field—spoke to Juba Global News Network under condition of anonymity. He explained, “We got the shutdown orders late Saturday night. By four in the morning Sunday, the last of our foreign staff were lifted out by chopper to Paloich, then flown on to Juba. Sudanese and South Sudanese workers were escorted by road to Rubkona under RSF watch. The field’s totally down now.”

Independent analysts looking at satellite images see no obvious destruction at the main sites, which maybe suggests the RSF is intentionally keeping the infrastructure intact—for now, at least.

RSF’s Message: “We’ll Protect the Oil”

In a video released Sunday night, RSF commander Lt. Gen. Abu Agla Keikel assured viewers the paramilitary would guarantee the safety of oil staff and facilities. “Heglig’s under the Rapid Support Forces’ protection now. We urge all companies—Sudanese, South Sudanese, Chinese, Malaysian, Indian—to get back to work, under our security umbrella. The old days of extortion and blackmail by regime leftovers are finished.” Keikel also said the RSF had set up a new “Oil Protection Force,” recruiting local Misseriya and Dinka, to secure the area, and he invited South Sudan’s Vice President for Economic Cluster, Dr. James Wani Igga, to visit soon to discuss restarting oil flows.

Juba’s Urgent Moves

That Sunday afternoon, South Sudan’s Council of Ministers scrambled for an emergency meeting in Juba. Presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny briefed the press, saying President Salva Kiir had ordered the Petroleum Ministry and National Security Service to “engage all parties” so production and transit keep running. But behind closed doors, officials sounded pretty anxious. One cabinet member, speaking off the record, warned, “If the RSF hikes up transit fees or starts siphoning oil revenues for their war chest, South Sudan’s government could go bust in weeks. We’re already three months late on paying civil servants.”

Sources in the Petroleum Ministry said contingency plans are being drafted for a few outcomes, such as rerouting crude through other pipelines like the idle Thar Jath–Juba line, or maybe even shipping oil through Kenya’s Lamu Port—if the Lamu Port–South Sudan–Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) corridor is somehow fast-tracked. These ideas had seemed totally impractical before, but now? Who knows.

Regional and Global Ripples

The African Union Peace and Security Council is due for an emergency session on Tuesday. Both Ethiopia and Kenya, who are counting on South Sudanese oil for their planned refineries, put out careful statements urging “immediate cessation of hostilities around critical economic infrastructure.” China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)—the main stakeholder in Block 3/7 (Heglig) and Blocks 1/2/4 in South Sudan—kept things short, saying it’s “monitoring the situation closely” and putting its staff’s safety first.

A spokesperson from the U.S. State Department slammed “any attempt to weaponize energy resources” and repeated calls for both sides to get back to the Jeddah talks (led by Saudi Arabia and the U.S.), which had fallen apart in October after El Fasher was lost.

The Bigger Strategic Picture

Military experts see Heglig’s capture as part of a calculated RSF plan—bleed SAF finances and build their own economic base in territory they now control. With their tight grip on Sudan’s gold-rich regions in Darfur and the Jebel Amer mines, seizing Heglig puts Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemedti”) in charge of two out of three of Sudan’s main sources of foreign cash: gold and oil transit fees.

For SAF, the loss couldn’t be much worse. The army’s already reeling from blocked ports in Port Sudan, thanks to intermittent RSF drone attacks, and there’s a worsening fuel crisis in Khartoum. Now, they face losing tens of millions of dollars in oil revenue each month, just as they try to launch a new offensive in Sennar and Blue Nile states.

A Precarious Lifeline

Sunday night fell with the Heglig and Toma South pumps stilled—machines that have rarely stopped since the 1990s. For the first time since South Sudan broke away, the oil flow—the lifeblood of both countries—is totally in the hands of a paramilitary force the United Nations accuses of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Will the RSF restart production on their own terms, work out some kind of revenue deal with Juba, or try to export the oil independently? At this point, it’s anyone’s guess.

But one thing is clear: Heglig’s fall has turned Sudan’s civil war from a fight for political control into a high-stakes battle for economic survival, with shockwaves that’ll reach from the Sudd’s swamps all the way to the trading floors in Singapore and Shanghai.

Juba Global News Network will keep tracking updates by the hour.

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