By Godfrey Olukya 19-10-2012
Foreign and national oil companies involved in oil industry in South Sudan have today started preparing to resume production.
They have called their workers to report for duty immediately. Many South Sudanese are happy about the directive saying that the country had run short of money to provide services.
This comes after the minister of petroleum and mining, Stephen Dhieu Dau, directing yesterday that oil companies and pipeline operators should immediately resume production of crude oil.
In a statement issued last evening, Dhieu said all petroleum operations in blocks 1/2/4, 3/7 and 5A that were halted in January this year, should resume immediately.
The minister said,’The directive has been given in accordance with the cooperation agreements signed with Sudan in Addis Ababa last month.’
The presidents of South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit signed the deal with Sudanese president Omer Ahmed Hassan El Bashir in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on 27 September.
Dhieu however said that the first exports are expected to be in the next three months.South Sudan stopped oil production in January this year, following disagreements with the Sudan government over transit and export fees.
The directive of starting production has excited many South Sudan nationals. A worker in an oil company Mark Okol said,’We have been redundant for several months. We have not been earning money because we have not been working. I m happy that soon we are to start doing our work.’
The minister said that the government had completed assessing all oil infrastructures located in the country and was technically ready to start exporting within three months.
He explained that biggest foreign operators, like Dar Petroleum, run by Chinese state firm Sinopec, China National Petroleum Corp and Malaysia’s Petronas expect an initial output of 180,000 barrels per day within three months.
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