South Sudan and the generation of electric power: A case for natural gas

By Riang Yer Zuor *

Dec 15, 2006 — It has already been two years since the signing of the Naivasha Peace Agreement (better known as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement or CPA) between the SPLM and the Khartoum Government. The agreement placed the administration of South Sudan in the hands of the government of South Sudan under the SPLM leadership. On July 9, 2005, seven months after the signing of the agreement, that government was formed for the purpose of governing and developing the region. For a number of reasons, the government has not yet made any solid steps towards developing the region. Electricity, which is the engine of development, is still foreigner in South Sudan—main towns included.

A month or so ago, there was an article posted by some of the online news papers. The article was talking about a possibility of building a dam in South Sudan for the purpose of generating 5,000 mega watts of hydroelectricity. The estimated cost for building such a dam was supposed to be 9 billion U.S. dollars. Assuming that the source was credible, this is an astronomical debt (considering the fact that South Sudan’s annual revenue is barely above 2 billion) waiting to be incurred by the people of South Sudan. The figure must have shocked the conscience of any one who has a first-hand knowledge of the dire situation in that part of the world.

Nevertheless, it is a cost, I believe, that the people of South Sudan must accept to incur if South Sudan is to be developed, for no meaningful development can take place without electricity. But, its acceptance, at least for the whole interim period, must be contingent upon the lack of other cheaper alternatives.

Yes, diesel has become very expensive these days. But, what about natural gas? I believe there is natural gas in South Sudan, or Sudan in general, that the government in Juba should use to generate electricity for less than $9 billion dollars. The majority of this proposed $9 billion dollars should rather be used to build roads, which are the second most important factor after electricity in facilitating development. Then after the interim period, the construction of the dam would take priority. By then we would have a network of roads connecting all the state capitals, thereby facilitating a robust interstate commerce. This robust interstate commerce would promote industrialization which, in turn, would necessitate the maximum use of the potential 5,000 megawatts of hydroelectricity.

But, where is that natural gas in the country? Is it currently available? Why isn’t any one talking about it? The paragraphs below attempt to give answers to these questions.

OIL AND GAS

It is hard to explain the origin of oil and natural gas. This is because scientists do not fully agree on how the two originate. On one side of the debate, there are those who believe that oil and gas have their origins in organic matters. Then, on the other side, there is a belief that they originate from inorganic matters. But, at this point in time, the most popular belief among geologists is that oil and gas have their origins in the organic matters.

The thought is that millions of years ago, remains of dead plants and animals settled on some ancient seafloor. Sediment collected and buried these remains under thousands of feet. Heat and chemical reaction converted these organic matters into hydrocarbon compounds known to us as crude oil or petroleum. As heat and burial increase, the heavier parts of these hydrocarbons get broken down into light hydrocarbons and methane, a colorless, odorless gas, which is the simplest form of hydrocarbon. These light hydrocarbons and methane collectively become what we know as natural gas. The two (oil and gas) migrate together from their original place until they find a reservoir where they sit together with the gas on top of the oil. This tells you that when you dig for oil, you hit the gas first and then the oil second. If this is the case, then one can make a case that where there is oil, there is natural gas.

It is a well-known fact that South Sudan produces most of the oil that has now made Khartoum the magnet of international investments. But, always there is no mention of natural gas. This silence has been going on for quiet a while. From the time that the Khartoum Peace Agreement was negotiated to the time that it was signed; from the time that the Naivasha Peace Agreement was negotiated to the time that it was signed; and from the time that the Naivasha Peace Agreement was signed to the present—the talk has always been about oil, oil, oil, and oil, completely ignoring the issue of natural gas.

Yes, oil is important for development in South Sudan because it provides money. But so is natural gas because it can be used to generate electricity to facilitate that development. Why should this important commodity be ignored when it is to South Sudan what oil is to the same? Could it be that the Sudanese gas is not produced in good commercial quality and that it does not sell? Could it be that the Government of South Sudan does not know about an existence of natural gas and that Khartoum is not willing to volunteer the information? Could it be that the reserve have been discovered but the resource has not yet been extracted? Or could it be that the companies extracting oil destroy the gas in the process of recovering the oil? Someone somewhere owes somebody an explanation.

World Energy Council indicates that Sudan had a proved recoverable reserve of natural gas at the end of 1999 estimated at 3,002,000,000,000 billion cubic feet or 85 billion cubic meters. The same amount is confirmed by the Cape Town-based MBendi Information Services (Pty) Ltd. It says that “…Sudan has been producer of oil and gas for a number of years…” It also says that Sudan is “rich in natural gas with reserves estimated at 3 trillion cubic feet (tcf).” On December 12, 2006, an article in the Business Day (Johannesburg) talked about PetroSA acquiring gas exploration rights in both northern and southern Namibia. It said that the company has gas operation portfolios in “Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Sudan.” These are some of the indications that Sudan produces or at least has reserves of natural gas.

CONCLUSION

Electricity is badly needed in South Sudan. Everybody knows that it is going to cost a lot to electrify that vast region. The Government of South Sudan has just to choose a cheaper alternative among several ones: hydro dams, diesel and gas powered generators. I believe that use of gas powered turbines is that cheaper alternative.

If the government of South Sudan knows something about the natural gas, then it is time that it starts talking about it so that the people of South Sudan can stop feeling shortchanged by Khartoum. If it knows nothing about it, then it needs to talk to Khartoum to find out exactly what is going on before it commits $9 billion dollars to the construction of a hydroelectric power dam. It is in the best interest of our people that a cheaper way of generating electricity in these first years of the existence of the government of South Sudan. Everything at this point indicates that 5,000 megawatts would not be used to the maximum because the groundwork for its use has not yet been laid out. Without that maximum use, the whole of this good project would turn out to be a liability.

References

Lowe, John S. et al (2002): Cases And Materials On Oil And Gas. American Casebook Series, West Group.

Major, Trevor (1996): Genesis And The Origin Of Coal And Oil. Apologetics Press, Inc.. Montgomery, Al.

* The author is a South Sudanese living in the U.S. He is the author of a book entitled Modern Sudan: Its History and the Genesis of the Current Crises, and co-authored another book titled South Sudan: a Legitimate Struggle with Dr. Hoth Giw Chan. He can be reached at: [email protected].