South Sudan is looking to get its oil production back on track after a five-year civil war which started in 2012 disrupted the budding industry. The government is scheduled to commence an auction of licenses to develop eight oil fields around the country later this month.
This disclosure was made by the Director-General for Planning, Training, and Research at the country’s oil ministry, Arkangelo Okwang Oler. “We are working on increasing the production of oil,” said Oler during an oil and power conference in Cape Town.
The country aims for production output to reach 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) within the next two years from the current amount of 178,000 bpd. In the long-run, however, the goal is to get production to 350,000 bpd, Oler said, without giving a time frame.
Oler further revealed that an official launch of the tender for the licenses will be carried out by Oil Minister Awow Daniel Chuang at a conference in the capital Juba on October 29-30. The government is expected to declare the results in the first quarter of 2020.
“We are inviting companies to come and impart your technologies based on the best international practices,” Oler said. “South Sudan is the current destination for investment.”
Meanwhile, the world’s youngest nation made a small oil discovery in Northern Upper Nile State in August, which was the first since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011.
The long-term target of 350,000 bpd was South Sudan’s peak production before the war brought the oil industry and the broader political and economic spheres to stagnancy. The unrest has killed some 380,000 people and left more than six million people in dire need of food aid.
With the warring parties – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar – agreeing last month to form a transitional government by November, Oler expressed optimism on the country’s stability prospects. “I am optimistic that we are moving toward a stable government,” the official said.
The United States (U.S.) also has warned that it will consider sanctions on leaders in South Sudan if they fail to form the unity government by their self-imposed deadline of November 12.
According to Bryan Hunt, the U.S. State Department’s office director for Sudan and South Sudan, Western powers would not accept another delay in the deadline, which was already extended by six months from May to November.
“We’re not prepared to continue to hear arguments for why more time must be given. We think it’s past time, frankly, for the leadership to sit together and begin to find ways to move this country forward,” Hunt said, adding that if the government is not formed by the deadline, the U.S. will need to “re-evaluate the relationship” with South Sudan.
The measures as stated by Hunt could include sanctions targeting South Sudan’s elite or restrictions on their travel to the U.S. but America will not cut off its $1 billion in annual assistance to the country. This is because the grant is largely humanitarian, supporting food and other basic needs among ordinary people.
