Michael Makuei, the Minister of Information and government official Spokesperson. | Photo: Lou Nelson/Eye Radio - April 26, 2023

The Minister of Information said Thursday the government will soon operationalize oil refineries in the country as an alternative to the Port Sudan route.

This comes after a violent conflict in Sudan forced oil companies to evacuate some of their staff – resulting in restrictions on the country’s oil export.

Michael Makuei admitted that the government should have put the local refineries to use in 2019, after mass protests rocked Sudan leading to the ouster of former president Omar al Bashir.

“In fact, we should have learned from the first event when President Bashir was overthrown, and we had that situation, we should have thought of any other alternative means of evacuating the crude oil, or else we operationalize our refineries so that we can refine them and export the finished goods,” he said.

In an exclusive interview with Eye Radio on Thursday, the government spokesperson said Juba is looking for alternatives to export the country’s oil.

Makuei said the Bentiu oil refinery is complete while the other refinery in Paloch will be constructed afterwards.

“We have learned from that and we have now started planning, the refinery in Bentiu is ready, except that we did not have the route for the evacuation of the finished goods.”

“So, we are now in the process of setting up the road, connecting it to Lakes and to Warrap. Once this road is out then definitely, probably our oil in the Tharjiath area will be processed immediately and brought as finished good.”

“This is the plan on which we are working now, in addition to that we are planning if possible, will open the Pagak – Ethiopia road. It is technical work of course and as such, I cannot say when will it finish, but all the companies have been engaged now to construct the road.”

South Sudan has the third-largest oil reserves on the continent after Libya and Nigeria, estimated at 3.5 billion barrels, with much of it yet to be explored.

But it is a landlocked country – which exclusively exports its crude oil through Sudan to the Red Sea Port.

The country also depends entirely on imported oil through the coast of Kenya and Tanzania for its domestic use.