Posted on :Tuesday , 2nd April 2019

South Sudan's ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union, James Morgan, voiced that with his country enjoying relative peace after almost five years of civil war, South Sudan has turned its sights on reviving its oil sector. 

Despite the ongoing efforts to increase non-oil revenues, South Sudan depends on oil production to finance more than 90 percent of its fiscal expenditure.

Morgan informed Xinhua that with the signing of the September 2018 peace agreement, South Sudan has been able to open five oil fields that were shut down during the war. 

“We remain cautiously optimistic about the outlook for South Sudan, however, output will take time to ramp up,” said Mansur Mohammed, research manager for the upstream oil industry in sub Saharan Africa. “Security will be the main concern for operators in South Sudan. The peace deal needs to hold.”

"At the moment South Sudan produces around 350,000 barrels of oil per day, but with the opening of previously closed oil fields and ongoing rehabilitation of currently operating oil fields.

He further added, "we are very positive that South Sudan will hit the 1 million barrels of oil per day mark by end of 2019." 

Morgan called on important development partners, including China, to support South Sudan's efforts to rehabilitate its oil sector that was drastically hurt by the civil war.  

Mr.Gatkuoth, who previously served as ambassador to Washington and the UN, said the Sudanese protests are yet to impact to his relationship with the government in Khartoum and insists that investor interest in South Sudan is reviving. 

“My role as the Minister of Petroleum here in the Republic of South Sudan is to make sure that the resources of the country are used now and not tomorrow,” he said.