South Africa and South Sudan sign big joint co-operation deal
DANIEL MAJACK SOUTH Sudan’s petroleum ministry on Friday signed an agreement with South Africa that allows the Johannesburg-based state-owned oil company to invest in the energy sector in Juba.
Ezekiel Lul Gatkuoth, South Sudan’s petroleum minister, said the agreement he signed with visiting South African counterpart Jeff Radebe will allow the two countries to work jointly in the country’s oil industry and gas to improve the economy.
“What we have signed this morning is a co-operation deal between our two national oil companies and the funding will come from the Central Energy Fund of South Africa,” Gatkuoth said in Juba. He said the joint co-operation with South Africa would help Juba build its oil refinery, which will allow the country to sell refined products to Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya and Uganda.
The minister said the east African oil-rich nation will be the hub of oil in the region and also in the continent, adding that the new deal will see the two countries create alternative routes of transporting its crude oil.
“We will continue to use the pipeline going to Port Sudan, but for the oil that will be discovered in the southern part of the country we will have to find a means to transport the crude, and that is why it is important to have a new partner,” Gatkuoth said.
South African Energy Minister Jeff Radabe said that the agreement was to ensure that the peace process in South Sudan was anchored with economic development by exploiting the oil resources for the prosperity of the country. Radebe said that the planned oil refinery would have the capacity to produce up to 60 000 barrels of oil a day, and that is why the investment would be a huge undertaking.
The minister has also announced the donation of a mineral laboratory to South Sudan’s petroleum ministry as part of his government’s commitment to the deal.