South Sudan on the Verge of Becoming Africa’s Petroleum Giant
If South Sudanese leadership will allow peace to reign in their country, there is enough natural resource wealth to go round and lift the poverty stricken African nation into prosperity, this was the observation of energy analysts on the recent discovery made by a CNPC-led consortium of a discovery of a 300 million barrels of recoverable oil discovery in South Sudan’s northeastern Upper Nile state. It is almost as much as the Oyo Discovery announced earlier this month in Congo.
Sources very close to the development say that the exploration well which was drilled at a total depth of 1,320m near the Adar oilfield in Block 3 is operated by the Dar Petroleum Operating Company (DOPC), which includes CNPC, Petronas, Nilepet, Sinopec and Tri-Ocean Energy.
Speaking on the development, the Executive Chairman at the Chamber and CEO of the Centurion Law Group Nj Ayuk said that the discovery was a very remarkable achievement for the country, noting that since the independence of the country, they have worked tirelessly to bring back damaged fields to production, and especially encourage exploration. The efforts to maintain peace and stability and a safe environment for investors seem to have paid off. He added that the development gives further credence to the belief that stability goes hand in hand with economic prosperity. This is because such a large discovery confirms the huge potential of South Sudan in oil & gas just before the country launches a new licensing round in October.
It could be recalled that earlier this year, South Sudan signed an exploration and production sharing agreement (EPSA) with South Africa’s Strategic Fuel Fund for the highly prospective Block B2. The move was part of South Sudan’s strategy to diversify its basket of investors and encourage further exploration. The country has one of Africa’s largest reserves with over 3.5bn of proven oil reserves which is the third largest in sub-Saharan Africa, 70% of its territory remains under-explored. To boost exploration, South Sudan will be launching a new and much-awaited petroleum licensing round at the upcoming Africa Oil & Power conference in Cape Town on October 9th, 2019.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.