JUBA, July 16 (Xinhua/GNA) – South Sudan and Sudan have agreed to jointly address issues limiting the export of Juba’s oil through Khartoum ports, South Sudan’s local media reported citing petroleum minister as saying on Monday.
Awow Daniel Chuang, South Sudan’s minister of petroleum and mining told state owned-radio South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SBBC) that the two countries agreed to set up a coordination unit in Port Sudan to ease movement of oil production equipment coming to South Sudan through Sudanese territory.
Chuang said the new arrangements would ease oil export and also help South Sudan to further increase its daily oil output from the current 170,000 barrels per day.
« We are going to monitor all the petroleum production materials that are coming into the country because oil producing companies are currently facing some challenges, » Chuang said, adding that South Sudan and Sudan are trying to solve these issues to increase production.
Landlocked South Sudan relies on Sudan’s oil infrastructure to transport its crude oil for export. South Sudan last week dispatched a high-level delegation headed by finance minister Salvatore Garang Mabiordit to Khartoum to discuss ways of strengthening oil production in the conflict-torn east Africa country.
According to the World Bank, South Sudan is the most oil-dependent nation in the world, with oil accounting for around 60 percent of its gross domestic product.
But after the young nation descended into civil war in late 2013, oil production declined from 350,000 barrels per day in 2011 to less than 130,000 barrels per day in 2014 amid soaring inflation.
Following the signing of a new peace deal in September 2018, conflict has reduced and previously closed oilfields have re-opened, with the country’s current daily output estimated at 170,000 barrels per day.
In June 2018, Juba and neighboring Khartoum agreed to deploy a joint security force to secure oil installations and jointly repair oil infrastructure damaged during South Sudan’s civil war.
