South Sudan seeks more investment in oil sector
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E-mail Xinhua, June 10, 2017
JUBA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan has invited more oil companies to invest in exploration, production and distribution in order to double the country's daily output, Petroleum Minister Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth said on Friday.
Gatkuoth said the oil-rich East African nation has embarked on negotiating new exploration and production agreements with several companies in a bid to double the country's current 130,000 barrels per day in 2018.
He said the government has opened up negotiations with foreign oil companies like the French oil and Gas Company, Total, Tullow Oil and the Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC) among others.
He said 70 percent of the country's oil blocks remains unexplored as such, the government wants oil firms to immediately start discovery.
"I can announce today that the oil industry will be shining. We are inviting investors to come and invest in South Sudan, and we are also engaging different oil companies in negotiations in different Blocks and more forward very quickly," Gatkuoth said.
Gatkuoth spoke to journalists in the South Sudan capital Juba upon his return from the Africa Oil and Power Conference 2017, in Cape Town, South Africa.
War-torn South Sudan depends on oil revenue for 98 percent of its budget, but production reduced significantly due to civil war that erupted in December 2013.
The conflict forced most oilfields in the country's oil-rich northern region to shut down, leading to fall in production to less than 130,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 350,000 bpd in 2011.
The east African nation is currently struggling with hyper inflation amid shortage of foreign reserves to support imports. Enditem
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