South Sudan looking for new investments in oil and gas

July 29, 2019 (JUBA) – South Sudan is seeking to attract international finance to help develop its oil and gas sector during the upcoming third oil and gas conference in the country, an official said last week.

The Petroleum minister, Awow Daniel Chuang said the young nation seeks investments to revive redundant projects in the oil and energy sector, which failed to take off largely due to lack of finance and disruption caused by the more than five years of a violent conflict.

South Sudan will host its third annual oil and gas conference in partnership with Africa Oil and Power, focusing on issues like finance, oil field technology and community development from Oct 28-30.

Awow said it is important to focus on financing to tackle challenges the country faces and tap international funding and expertise in oil and gas.

South Sudan, he stressed, has since 2017 relied on the Africa Oil and Power conferences to market its oil industry to the world as the country seeks to consolidate its position as the major oil producer in the region ahead of new comers like Kenya and Uganda.

“This is an incredible milestone in South Sudan’s plans to double oil production by 2020. The country has a massive onshore reserve base and vast unexplored areas that make a licensing round very exciting. We are excited to host the announcement of the 2020 oil and gas licensing round at Africa Oil & Power 2019 and South Sudan Oil & Power 2019,” said Guillaume Doane, CEO of Africa Oil & Power.

South Sudan, which depends on oil production to finance its fiscal budget is currently struggling to increase oil production, months after the signing of the revitalized peace accord in September 2018.

Presently, the young nation is pumping 175,000 barrels per day of crude oil.

(ST)