By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Landlocked South Sudan says it will resume oil production for export, documents sighted by AFP on Tuesday indicate, following the destruction of a key pipeline earlier this year in neighbouring Sudan, where fighting between the military and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began in April 2023.
The country ships its oil to global markets via Port Sudan on the Red Sea, with Khartoum receiving a transit fee.
The pipeline rupture in February significantly impacted the economy of South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, established in 2011.
“The Ministry of Petroleum is hereby declaring the 30th December 2024 as the official kick-off date for the resumption of production operations in block three and seven,” the Director General of the Petroleum Authority, Kon John Akot, said in a letter dated 19 December.
The letter to the president of Dar Petroleum Operating Company (DPOC), one of the firms in a consortium running South Sudan’s oilfields, requested the firm to “promptly share DPOC’s Production Resumption Plans.”
It could not be independently verified if production had resumed, but a DPOC letter dated 23 December and addressed to other consortium members indicated there were still outstanding issues before production could resume, stating that “further discussions” were required.
“Once these issues have been satisfactorily resolved, a final decision regarding the resumption kick-off date can be determined and approved,” the letter added.
South Sudan, home to about 12 million people, gained about three-quarters of Sudan’s oil reserves when it achieved independence in 2011.
Before the pipeline destruction, the country produced over 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.
Since its creation, South Sudan has struggled to achieve stability, facing ethnic violence, civil unrest, poverty, and natural disasters.
A delayed election under the transitional government led by President Salva Kiir Mayardit was postponed earlier this year due to inadequate logistics and the quest for a new constitution.
