Email
Printer
Friendly- Share:
Text
KAMPALA Uganda--South Sudan said Saturday that new oil fields in its Unity state had increased oil production by at least 26% as the landlocked nation steps up efforts to scale up oil flow, more than two weeks after reaching a deal with Sudan to end a long-standing oil export row.
Crude pumping from the new fields has increased the country's oil production to at least 240,000 barrels-a-day compared with 190,000 barrels-a-day two weeks ago, a major breakthrough in the country's efforts to restore full-scale output to 350,000 barrels by December, Petroleum Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau said.
A string of other new oil fields is expected to come on stream in the next few weeks, as the world's youngest nation steps up efforts to repair its ailing economy.
"New oil fields from the Unity state now produce around 30% of the crude," Mr. Dau said, adding that the bulk of oil production continues to be pumped from the Upper Nile state, near the eastern border with Ethiopia.
South Sudan hosts the third largest crude reserves from sub-Saharan Africa after Angola and Nigeria. South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July 2011 ending a two-decade civil war but it has to rely on pipelines and ports that straddle Sudan to export its crude.
Sudan and South Sudan have had stormy relations since the separation that appeared to worsen in June after Khartoum threatened to block exports from the South, accusing Juba of using oil revenues to back rebels. South Sudan denies the accusations. The presidents of the two countries agreed on a Chinese-mediated truce early this month, allowing South Sudan to scale up oil production, the source of its entire oil revenue. Sudan and South Sudan export nearly all their crude to refiners in Asia.
Write to Nicholas Bariyo at nicholas.bariyo@wsj.com
KAMPALA Uganda--South Sudan said Saturday that new oil fields in its Unity state had increased oil production by at least 26% as the landlocked nation steps up efforts to scale up oil flow, more than two weeks after reaching a deal with Sudan to end a long-standing oil export row.
Crude pumping from the new fields has increased the country's oil production to at least 240,000 barrels-a-day compared with 190,000 barrels-a-day two weeks ago, a major breakthrough in the country's efforts to restore full-scale output to 350,000 barrels by December, Petroleum Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau said.
A string of other new oil fields is expected to come on stream in the next few weeks, as the world's youngest nation steps up efforts to repair its ailing economy.
"New oil fields from the Unity state now produce around 30% of the crude," Mr. Dau said, adding that the bulk of oil production continues to be pumped from the Upper Nile state, near the eastern border with Ethiopia.
South Sudan hosts the third largest crude reserves from sub-Saharan Africa after Angola and Nigeria. South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July 2011 ending a two-decade civil war but it has to rely on pipelines and ports that straddle Sudan to export its crude.
Sudan and South Sudan have had stormy relations since the separation that appeared to worsen in June after Khartoum threatened to block exports from the South, accusing Juba of using oil revenues to back rebels. South Sudan denies the accusations. The presidents of the two countries agreed on a Chinese-mediated truce early this month, allowing South Sudan to scale up oil production, the source of its entire oil revenue. Sudan and South Sudan export nearly all their crude to refiners in Asia.
Write to Nicholas Bariyo at nicholas.bariyo@wsj.com
No comments:
Post a Comment