South Sudan Says Sudan Blocking Oil Exports, Diverting Crude Via Pipeline

South Sudan accused Sudan of blocking 3.4 million barrels of its oil exports and said the northern neigbor is also seeking to divert the flow of some of its crude by building a new pipeline.

Fuel shipments have been held up in international waters in the Red Sea since Dec. 22 and an oil-laden vessel scheduled to leave on Jan. 4 has been stopped from leaving Port Sudan, Oil Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau told reporters today in Juba, the capital. Sudan also started building a “tie-in” pipeline between PetroDar Operating Co.’s eastern pipeline and two oil refineries in Sudan to divert 13 percent of Dar blend crude, he said.

“We will take all the necessary legal actions against Khartoum and buyers of crude or refined oil that is stolen from South Sudan,” he said. Sudan Foreign Ministry spokesman al-Obeid Murawih didn’t answer his mobile phone when called for comment.

A dispute between the two countries erupted in November when South Sudan said Sudan blocked shipments purchased by China International United Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and Geneva-based Vitol SA. China publicly urged the two sides to reach an agreement that would ensure the flow of oil and sent its top African envoy, Liu Guijin, to the capitals of both nations on Dec. 7 and Dec. 8 for talks with officials.

South Sudan assumed control of about three-quarters of Sudan’s output of 490,000 barrels a day when it seceded on July 9 after an independence referendum. Talks since then have failed to yield an agreement on the amount landlocked South Sudan will pay to transport its oil through a pipeline across Sudan.

Letters of Complaint

Dau said the “tie-in” pipeline being built by Sudan will be ready to connect to the main PetroDar pipeline by Jan. 15. PetroDar wrote letters of complaint to Sudan and South Sudan after being requested by Khartoum to connect to the tie-in pipeline, Dau said.

“They rejected it as an illegal action,” he said.

British Virgin Islands-registered Petrodar’s shareholders include state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPZ), Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd (PET) and the government-controlled Sudan Petroleum Co., according to its website. Calls to a number listed on the website didn’t connect and the company didn’t immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

Juba and Khartoum failed to reach an agreement on the oil dispute in talks during December. Further African Union- sponsored negotiations are scheduled to take place on Jan. 17 to Jan. 21 in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. Dau said his government invited the oil companies to sit in on the talks.

Chinese Visit

A delegation that will include Chinese oil executives is scheduled to arrive in Juba on Jan. 13, he said. During the visit, the companies will sign new exploration and production sharing agreements with the government for three blocks, while contract negotiations continue for three additional blocks. Since independence, Juba has been negotiating new contracts with oil companies, as previous ones were signed with the Khartoum government.

Dau told reporters that Sudan ordered foreign oil companies to divert all of South Sudan’s Nile blend crude entitlements for December to the Khartoum and el-Obeid refineries. He also accused the Sudanese government of ordering 550,000 barrels of South Sudan’s Dar blend crude entitlement to be delivered to a Sudanese buyer, whom he didn’t identify.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jared Ferrie in Juba at jferrie1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Richardson atpmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-10/south-sudan-says-sudan-blocking-oil-exports-diverting-crude-via-pipeline.html

South Sudan says Sudan blocking its oil exports

Related News

By Hereward Holland

JUBA | Wed Jan 11, 2012 12:15pm EST

Jan 11 (Reuters) – South Sudan has accused the Sudanese government of blocking 3.4 million barrels of its crude oil exports, diverting over half a million barrels to its refineries and building a pipeline to keep diverting its oil.

Six months after landlocked South Sudan seceded from Sudan, the two countries have failed to agree on how much Juba should pay Khartoum in fees to transport its production of 350,000 barrels per day to port.

South Sudan’s minister of petroleum and mining, Stephen Dhieu Dau, said Sudan was re-routing all of the new nation’s Nile Blend crude oil entitlements for December to refineries in El Obeid and Khartoum.

“Any diversion of (South Sudan’s) oil without its consent is nothing less than theft, and preventing crude oil from leaving port is unlawful and a violation of international laws and norms,” Dhieu Dau said in a statement obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.

The Sudanese foreign ministry could not be reached for comment. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said this month Khartoum would impose a fee on Juba until a deal was reached on a transit fee but gave no details.

Already tense relations between the two nations soured in November when South Sudan accused Sudan of temporarily seizing 1.6 million barrels at Port Sudan. Sudan threatened to take 23 percent of South Sudan’s oil exports as payment in kind until a final deal.

Dhieu Dau said Khartoum had sold over half a million barrels of South Sudanese oil to an undisclosed Sudanese buyer and had started construction of a pipeline that would permanently deliver 13 percent of the South’s Dar blend to refineries in Khartoum.

Analysts say Khartoum needs to keep supplying oil to its refineries or risk damaging its facilities because of the nature of the crude.

Dhieu Dau charged Khartoum with preventing two ships carrying 1.6 million barrels of South Sudanese oil from leaving Port Sudan, another from loading 0.6 million barrels and two others from entering port to take possession of a further 1.2 million barrels.

Companies that buy crude from Sudan while the South’s oil is being stolen “will enjoy no further business with the Government of South Sudan”, he said.

“South Sudan further reminds Khartoum that the 1.6 million barrels of Dar Blend, now loaded onto ships, no longer belongs to South Sudan,” Dhieu Dau said.

South Sudan voted overwhelmingly for independence in a referendum a year ago, the culmination of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war in which over 2 million people died.

Dana Wilkins from Global Witness, which investigates transparency in extractive industries, said the delays and penalties incurred by the shipping companies could become very expensive if the situation is not resolved swiftly.

“Shaking investor confidence in an already uncertain context is a big move for Khartoum to be making right now,” Wilkins said. (Reporting by Hereward Holland; Editing by Ulf Laessing and Jane Baird)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/11/sudan-south-oil-idUSL6E8CB59Y20120111

South Sudan Accuses Sudan of Blocking Oil Shipments
Voice of America (blog)
South Sudan says its northern neighbor, Sudan, has blocked it from exporting 3.4-million barrels of oil during the past month. Sudan controls the pipelines that landlocked South Sudan needs to ship its oil to market, and the sides have been locked in a …

South Sudan Says Sudan Blocking Oil Exports, Diverting Crude Via Pipeline
Bloomberg
South Sudan accused Sudan of blocking 3.4 million barrels of its oil exports and said the northern neigbor is also seeking to divert the flow of some of its crude by building a new pipeline. Fuel shipments have been held up in international waters in …

Sudan, South Sudan Urged to Cooperate on Undocumented Citizens
BusinessWeek
10 (Bloomberg) — The United Nations urged Sudan and South Sudan’s governments to cooperate to determine the fate of 700000 southerners living in Sudan who remain undocumented. “They need to come together independent of all other problems that have not …

Michelle Obama’s First Days as First Lady: ‘Alone, Frightened’

By Cecilia Vega | ABC News 

http://d.yimg.com/nl/ynews/blog/player.html#vid=27831269&browseCarouselUI=hide

After her husband’s historic win in the 2008 presidential race, Michelle Obama wanted to stay put inChicago with her girls and not move to the White House, according to “The Obamas,” a new book by New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor that is scheduled to hit stores on Tuesday.

The book describes Obama as “alone, frightened and unsure of what to do next” during her first days.

She worried about her children bumping into White House tourists during play dates. Later, she would acknowledge just how tough life at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue can be.

“Sometimes it becomes difficult to live in what we call a bubble,” she said, according to the book.

The world watched her on a trip to London in April 2009 when she visited with young girls – nothing out of the ordinary.

“We are counting on every single one of you to be the very best that you can be,” Obama told them.

But what we didn’t know, according to Kantor’s book, was that Obama was having an epiphany, understanding for the first time through the eyes of those admiring girls what it meant to be first lady.

“She saw the responsibility, the impact, the potential of her role,” Kantor writes.

In the early days, the pressure to both be perfect and look perfect was always on.

“Everyone was waiting for a black woman to make a mistake,” an advisor told Kantor.

But Obama moved past that anxiety and took on a fight against childhood obesity and became a defender of her husband’s drive to reform health care.

Obama examined what she wore, realizing that “everything she wore carried a meaning,” Kantor writes. Her fashion became strategic, she wore glamorous ensembles at night and more relatable outfits bought at chain stores during the day.

Eventually, former aides say, Obama came to not only embrace, but love her role as first lady.

“It was natural that there would be a period of transition when she and the family went from being a private family in Chicago to the first family of the United States,” former White House deputy communications director Jen Psaki told ABC News.

http://news.yahoo.com/michelle-obamas-first-days-first-lady-alone-frightened-002933231–abc-news.html

Obama Sending 5 US Military Officers to South Sudan

By JULIE PACE | Associated Press 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is sending five American military officers to South Sudan amid recent outbreaks of violence in the newly independent African nation.

The White House said the U.S. forces will join the United Nations mission in the capital of Juba and focus on strategic planning and operations. They are not expected to engage in combat operations, but will be armed for personal protection.

Obama issued a memorandum Tuesday declaring that the U.S. officers could not be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court during their deployment because South Sudan is not a party to the ICC. The White House said prior administrations used similar designations when sending U.S. forces to United Nations missions in Haiti and Liberia.

The first of the small group of U.S. forces is expected to depart for South Sudan later this week. The Pentagon said there were no plans to expand the U.S. contribution to the U.N. mission.

Since gaining independence in July, South Sudan has been beset by internal conflict. Aid groups estimate that 60,000 people have been affected by recent outbreaks of violence, and the U.N. says tens of thousands have fled their homes and are in urgent need of high-nutritional food, clean water, health care and shelter.

Violence also has simmered on the new border with Sudan. The two countries have not yet agreed to terms to share the region’s oil wealth.

In response to the violence, Obama issued a separate memorandum last week giving the U.S. the ability to send weapons and defense assistance to South Sudan.

The U.S. strongly supported South Sudan’s drive for independence and sought to boost the fledgling nation, in part through agriculture assistance and private investment. The Obama administration also has authorized American investment in South Sudan’s oil sector.

The small deployment of U.S. forces to South Sudan is in contrast to Obama’s decision in October to send about 100 U.S. troops to Africa to help fight the Lord’s Resistance Army guerrilla group in Uganda and elsewhere in Central Africa. The bulk of that deployment was of special operations troops to provide security and combat training to African units as they tried to hunt down the LRA’s leader, Joseph Kony.

___

AP National Security Writer Robert Burns contributed to this report.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-sending-5-us-military-officers-sudan-202030764.html

Obama’s Hypocrisy: Skirting ICC to Send Troops to South Sudan

by Lawrence K Freeman

Jan. 11, 2012 (EIRNS)–With President Obama’s decision on Monday,
January 10, authorizing the deployment of troops to South Sudan,
he has begun the process of militarizing US relations with this
newly created nation, amidst reports that the US intends to build
a military base in South Sudan as well. The primary, if only,
purpose for these actions is to either intimidate the government
of Khartoum, or prepare for its over-throw.
The hypocrisy of Obama’s decision is made clear in the
release of the White House memorandum reported below, where his
justification for sending troops is, that South Sudan is a not a
party to the International Criminal Court.
Obama and his belligerent UN Ambassador, Susan Rice, have
used the ICC indictment of Sudanese President Omar al Bashir to
isolate, and strangle the Khartoum government. The ICC arrest
warrant for Bashir, which grew out of the orchestrated conflict
in Darfur, has become a cause célèbre by the rice-flakes in the
Darfur advocacy groups, to create an environment for regime
change in Sudan.
It is now clear to an honest observer, that Obama, Rice, and
all of the anti-Khartoum extremists, never had any concern for
the veracity of the ICC charge, or the welfare of the people of
Sudan. They cynically used this unverified charge for their own
purposes; supporting the ICC when they needed it, and now
avoiding the ICC when it is convenient.
Following the realization of British imperial dreams to
split up Sudan, the people of both North and South Sudan are
suffering, antagonisms between both countries are worsening, and
internal conditions in the South are very fragile.
Who benefits from such a policy, when the people of Sudan
> are in desperate need of the basic necessities of life?

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE: By the authority vested in
me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United
States of America… concerning the participation of members of the
Armed Forces of the United States in certain United Nations
peacekeeping and peace enforcement operations, I hereby certify
that members of the U.S. Armed Forces participating in the United
Nations Mission in South Sudan are without risk of criminal
prosecution or other assertion of jurisdiction by the
International Criminal Court (ICC) because the Republic of South
Sudan is not a party to the ICC and has not invoked the
jurisdiction of the ICC pursuant to Article 12 of the Rome
Statute.

Lawrence Freeman
EIR magazine
African Desk
(410)747-3817; Cell: (410) 218-6060

Israel Appoints Non-resident Envoy to South Sudan

Israel appoints non-resident envoy to South Sudan
Jerusalem Post
By HERB KEINON The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday named Haim Koren as ambassador to South Sudan, signaling the importance Jerusalem attributes to its relationship with the world’s newest state. Koren, a former director of the ministry’s Political Planning …

UN Security Council presses for ethnic reconciliation in South Sudan
Associated Press of Pakistan
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 10 (APP) – UN Security Council members have called on warring ethnic communities in South Sudan’s Jonglei state to engage in reconciliation and end the “cycle of conflict” that has claimed an unknown number of casualties in recent …

Explainer: violence in South Sudan
The Guardian
When South Sudan became independent six months ago, many anticipated trouble between the world’s newest state and its northern neighbour Sudan. But the worst loss of life has come in violence between groups within South Sudan itself, …

DFA: South Sudan on crisis alert level 3
Manila Bulletin
With these words from Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Tuesday raised crisis alert level 3 in South Sudan in light of the deteriorating security situation caused by inter-ethnic violence in the …

Headlines of major daily newspapers issued in Khartoum today the 9th of …
Sudan News Agency
Defense Minister: We will not accept to be a state ride to the enemies of South Sudan. Faced charges punishable by death, (151) defendants in the events of the Blue Nile are presented for trials. Al- Bashir announced the preparations for holding a …

UN Security Council presses for ethnic reconciliation in South Sudan
Associated Press of Pakistan
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 10 (APP) – UN Security Council members have called on warring ethnic communities in South Sudan’s Jonglei state to engage in reconciliation and end the “cycle of conflict” that has claimed an unknown number of casualties in recent …

GSDF faces challenges in S. Sudan mission
The Daily Yomiuri
The Ground Self-Defense Force’s nation-building activity as part of a UN peacekeeping operation inSouth Sudan is likely to take a long time and face various challenges. In mid-January, the first batch of a GSDF engineering unit will be sent to South …

South Sudan Marks Peace Day
Oye! Times
This Day is commemorated yearly in remembrance of the CPA that ushered in a new peaceful era in the history of South Sudan after decades of civil war where 2.5million people were killed and over 4 million others displaced. The event was organized by …

UN launches aid effort in South Sudan
Reuters Video
Jan 10 – The United Nations launches a complex humanitarian effort in South Sudan as Africa’s newest nation struggles with tribal clashes. Nick Rowlands reports.

South Sudan, UN Ill-Prepared to Contain Tribal Violence
World Politics Review
By Catherine Cheney | 10 Jan 2012 Outbreaks of violence between the Lou Nuer and Murle tribes inSouth Sudan, which began last month and continued into this week, have left hundreds dead and tens of thousands displaced in one of the most remote corners …

South Sudan’s latest ethnic violence claims 22 lives Firstpost Juba, South Sudan: Members of a South Sudanese tribe targeted in massive attacks late last month have killed 22 people and burned down three villages of the opposing tribe in new attacks, a state governor said. Thousands of youth from the Lou Nuer …

South Sudan accuses Sudan of blocking oil exports Atlanta Journal Constitution By MICHAEL ONYIEGO AP JUBA, South Sudan — South Sudan said Tuesday that Sudan, its northern neighbor that controls the region’s pipelines, has blocked the movement of 3.4 million barrels of oil belonging to the south since December. …

South Sudan Accuses Sudan of Blocking Oil Exports

JUBA, South Sudan — South Sudan said Tuesday that Sudan, its northern neighbor that controls the region’s pipelines, has blocked the movement of 3.4 million barrels of oil belonging to the south since December.

After breaking away from Sudan in July to become the world’s newest country, South Sudan gained control of nearly three quarters of the formerly unified country’s oil fields, which produce around 500,000 barrels per day.

The loss of the oil has cost Khartoum around half of its yearly revenue, and the two countries are currently negotiating revenue sharing and pipeline fees to help the north meet that budget shortfall.

But the South Sudan’s Minister of Petroleum and Mining Stephen Dhieu Dau told a news conference on Tuesday that the north has prevented 3.4 million barrels from reaching the market, and said Sudan ordered 550,000 barrels belonging to the south to be delivered to one of Khartoum’s buyers.

“They want to steal, to loot the resources of South Sudan,” Dau said.

Dau said that one ship carrying 1 million barrels of southern oil was blocked from leaving Port Sudan on Dec. 31, while a second carrying 600,000 barrels was stopped Jan. 3. A third ship entered port on Jan. 6 but has not been allowed to collect its 600,000-barrel cargo. The minister said two more ships scheduled to receive a total of 1.2 million barrels of southern oil have not been allowed to enter the northern port.

“They are still waiting now in international waters on the Red Sea since the 22nd of December,” said Dau.

South Sudan has called the blockade a theft of their natural resources in violation of international law.

Two spokesmen for Sudan’s government did not answer calls seeking comment.

Officials in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, have proposed a fee of about $36 per barrel for the use of the two pipelines. But the south says the fee amounts to extortion and has instead offered an average of 70 cents per barrel in addition to an aid package totaling $2.6 billion over four years.

The oil agreement still being negotiated is part of a host of outstanding issues from the region’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended more than 20 years of civil war between the two sides. After talks in Ethiopia broke down in November, the Sudan’s government threatened to take 23 percent of southern oil shipped through its port as an “in kind” payment of fees.

On Tuesday, Dau said Khartoum was in the “final stages” of constructing a pipeline that would permanently divert 13 percent of all oil shipped through the north. According to Dau the consortium which operates the pipeline, Petrodar, has denounced the action as illegal.

In December, South Sudan accused the north of holding 1.6 million barrels of oil meant in part for China, prompting a visit by a Chinese envoy to help break the deadlocked negotiations.

Another round of oil negotiations are expected to begin Jan. 17. South Sudan has invited China to take part in the talks. South Sudan says it will not allow its resources to be interfered with by Khartoum and has threatened legal action if the blockade continues.

“Iraq tried to invade Kuwait because they wanted to take the oil of Kuwait,” said South Sudan government spokesman Barnaba Benjamin Marial. “You know what happened to Saddam Hussein.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/10/south-sudan-accuses-sudan-blocking-oil-exports/#ixzz1j4IF8sjn

South Sudan facing multiple crises
News24
Now R153.95 Juba – South Sudan faces challenges of “huge dimensions” as the world’s newest nation struggles to support hundreds of thousands of people returning home or fleeing violence, the UN refugee chief said on Tuesday. “South Sudan is a newborn …

Kenyans trafficked to South Sudan for sex work -report
TrustLaw
REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya By Katy Migiro NAIROBI (TrustLaw) – Kenyan women are being trafficked to new country South Sudan as sex workers, according to a report in Tuesday’s The Star newspaper. There has been an influx of foreign sex workers from Kenya, …

South Sudan Accuses Sudan of Blocking Oil Exports
Fox News
AP JUBA, South Sudan — South Sudan said Tuesday that Sudan, its northern neighbor that controls the region’s pipelines, has blocked the movement of 3.4 million barrels of oil belonging to the south since December. After breaking away from Sudan in …

Filipinos in Troubled South Sudan Advised to Leave For Safety

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Foreign Affairs has advised Filipinos to voluntarily leave South Sudan amid a deadly unrest in the northeastern African country.

At the same time, Manila imposed a ban on deployment of Filipino workers to South Sudan.

In recent months, hundreds have been killed in clashes between Lou Nuer and Murle tribes in South Sudan’s Jonglei state.

The DFA on Tuesday raised the crisis alert level in South Sudan to alert level 3,where voluntary repatriation is in effect.

“For prudence’s sake, we have raised crisis alert level 3 in South Sudan in light of escalating violence in the capital where most of our nationals are located,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario said.

“We are ready to move our people out, should they wish to leave,” Del Rosario said.

New deployment will never be allowed as the DFA, in coordination with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), imposed a deployment ban also on Tuesday.

The Philippine Embassy in Cairo, which has jurisdiction over South Sudan, will implement the voluntary repatriation program, the DFA said.

The embassy reported that the area of violence is confined to villages in the border between Sudan and South Sudan.  The latter won its independence from the former in July 2011.

There are 150 Filipinos in South Sudan, mostly in construction companies, with the United Nations and in non-governmental organizations.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/22581/filipinos-in-troubled-south-sudan-advised-to-leave

SSLM/A APPEALS TO PETER GATDET FORCES TO COME BACK To THE SSLM/A

The SSLA Military High Command appealed to forces of Peter Gatdet in Mapel to come back to the Movement. The SSLA established contacts with forces of Peter Gatdet, Gabriel Tang and late Col. Gatluak Gai to return to revolutionary forces because the conditions they are enduring in Mapel are worse than slavery. There are over 1600 combined forces of Gatdet, Gabriel Tang and Gatluak Gai in Mapel that are denied food and were ordered to be disarmed. We advised them not to accept disarmament because the SPLA generals in Bilpam want to demobilize them afterwards.

The SSLA will welcome them with open arms to the rank and file of freedom fighters. We told them that SPLA under Salva Kiir is a tribally-guided army which will never integrate them because Salva Kiir saw them as a threat to his leadership. Peter Gatdet is now redundant in Juba without being returned to the army awaiting to be arrested anytime. His former spokesman, Col. Bol Gatkuoth, returned to England and he is now living with his family in London because the secret deal they signed with Salva Kiir last August has been dishonored.

The forces of Peter Gatdet, Gabriel Tang and Gatluak Gai in Mapel understood the tribal game being played by Salva Kiir and would never lay down their weapons until they return to SSLA. We assured them that the SSLA will confirm their ranks like before and should not worry at all.

Thanks,

Maj. Gen. Bapiny Monytuil
SSLA Military High Command
Mayom, South Sudan

South Sudan: Civilians Escape Ex-Militia Fire in Mapel

James Deng Dimo

---

Wau — Fighting erupted in Mapel town on Sunday, caused by the former Peter Gadet’s forces who are undertaking military integration in the military base of Dakumo as civilians were celebrating the first day of the New Year 2012.
The town came under heavy fire from the platoon at around 3.00 p.m. following a disagreement on 31st December, 2011 between a motor bike rider and one of former Gadet militiaman who hired a motor bike but failed to pay the rider according to the eye witness.

The forces of Gatdet were brought in the area for reintegration into SPLA army following the agreement reached with their leader and the Government in August last year. A large number of civilians has fled the town from the shooting but by 5.00 p.m. the forces withdrew from the town to their base in Dakumo one, Michael Mayen Atem, a policeman in the main town told The Citizen.

In an unconfirmed report to The Citizen, at least 2 bodies have been recovered dead while many more others have been wounded and admitted in the civil Hospital. The policeman could not tell The Citizen who were the dead victims between the civilians and the armed men. Gadet responded to President Kiir’s amnesty to the South Sudan rebel forces during the country’s declaration of independence on 9th July 2011 and returned to Juba last year in August while sending his forces to SPLA training camp in Mapel for integration into the national army. They are reported to have not laid down their arms in the barracks.

Copyright © 2012 The Citizen.All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

Penis Tattoo Leads to Permanent Erection

A 21-year-old Iranian man has a permanent semi-erection after having “borow be salaamat” (good luck with your journeys) and the letter “M” (his girlfriend’s initial) tattooed on his penis.

The man, whose name is unknown, was diagnosed with nonischemic priapism — a condition resulting from the inability of blood to exit the penis. His case was detailed in the latest issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine .

“In our case, most probably, the handheld needle penetrated the penis too deep, creating an arteriovenous fistula,” wrote the study authors fromKermanshah University of Medical Sciences  in Kermanshah, Iran. A fistula is a connection between two organs or vessels — in this case an artery and a vein — that normally don’t connect.

“For eight days after tattooing, the penis was painful, and thus there were no erections,” the authors wrote. “After that, the patient noticed longer-than-usual sleep-related erections. This progressed, within a week, to a constantly half-rigid penis, day and night.”

Men are advised to seek medical attention for an erection lasting more than four hours.

During a normal erection, blood rushes into the penis through the arteries to build up pressure and later leaves through the veins. But in nonischemic priapism, blood continues to enter faster than it can leave, causing persistent pressure and a permanent erection. The problem resolves naturally 62 percent of the time, the researchers reported. And when it doesn’t, men have the option of selective arterial embolism — a procedure that blocks the offending artery.

Instead, the Iranian man chose to have a shunt implanted to drain the excess blood, according to the report.

“Predictably, the procedure was unsuccessful,” the authors wrote. “Because of the painless nature of erections, moderately good preservation of erectile function during intercourses, and disappointment with former surgery, the patient has declined to undergo further therapies, and lives with his condition.”

Despite his permanent erection, the man has no regrets over his penis tattoo, according to the report. Nevertheless, the report authors advise against the practice.

“Based on our unique case, we discourage penile tattooing,” they wrote.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/01/09/penis-tattoo-leads-to-permanent-erection/