S. Sudan to boost oil exploration after new oil discovery: official
August 22, 2019 (JUBA) – South Sudan is seeking a boost in oil exploration after it discovered new oil well in the northern parts of the country, the Petroleum minister, Awow Daniel Chuang said.
“We want to go to the next level of exploration because we have not been fully engaged in exploration in the last few years probably because of instability,” Chuang said.
“With peace coming now, we will be able to move forward and do more exploration.”
Estimated to be worth 5.3 million barrels, the new oil well was discovered by Dar Petroleum Operating Company (DOPC), a consortium of firms such as China National Petroleum Corporation, Malaysia’s Petronas, Nilepet, Sinopec and India’s Tri-Ocean Energy.
South Sudan, where oil revenues make up nearly 98 percent of the budget, has been reeling an under economic crisis due to civil war.
South Sudan became the world’s youngest country after it split from Sudan in 2011. It has one of the largest reserves of crude in sub-Saharan Africa, only a third of which have been explored.
But production plummeted when civil war broke out two years after independence. A September peace deal is largely holding, but a plan to form a unity government in May was pushed to November.
Chuang, however, said government would continue its oil search in other parts of the country to increase the country’s production levels.
“This is the beginning of an era in our oil exploration activities because the geology of South Sudan has a lot of oil,” he stressed,
“Any addition, whether it is big or small, we will have a slight improvement in our oil production,” further added the minister.
South Sudan, officials say, presently produces 135,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
(ST)