South Sudan allows the consortium of China National Petroleum Corporation contract of being an operator in some of its oil fields to expire, then pass the role to the state-owned Nile Petroleum Corp. The company has begun their preparations since 2019 to become an operator in 2027, said the Managing Director of Nilepet, Chol Deng Thon Abel.
The consortium of Dar Petroleum Oil Operating Co, which CNPC has the biggest share, operates in Paloch oil fields located in the Upper Nile, blocks 3 and 7. The consortium's other partners; Tri-Ocean Energy Co, Sinopec Corp, and Malaysia’s Petroliam National Bhd (Petronas) will also leave in 2027. South Sudan’s CNPC offices are not available to reach for comment, message or email.
The country’s plan is another example of how some of the African government's making significant efforts in trying to boost roles played by the state-owned companies. Another country, Angola, is also on its way of restructuring the sector, including Sonangol EP that has been seeking to produce 10% of the nation’s total output from its operated fields.
The oil production sector is crucial for the East African country, South Sudan, to revive from the civil war that devastated the economy for years. As a country which had been estimated to have the third-biggest oil reserve in sub-Saharan Africa, a current production of 170,000 barrel/day is still lower than 50% of the output volume before the civil war started to break in 2013. Nilepet is accepting the help of oil-services company Schlumberger, in training the engineers who are assigned to take over the production from foreign workers, as the company will be authorized to work from oil exploration into production, also refining, said Abel. He also added that right now the company is forming a small seed company and growing it into a team that will actually take over in 2027.
