Bernard Amuor Makeny, Managing Director of NilePet pictured during an Eye Radio talk-show on October 27, 2023. (Photo: Lou Nelson).

Plans to build a mega oil depot with a capacity of 16 million litres at the Nesitu area along the Juba-Nimule Road are underway, the national oil firm NilePet announced.

Nile Petroleum Corporation Managing Director, Eng. Bernard Amuor Makeny was speaking during a visit to the site where the depot is to be constructed.

Makeny described the area as strategic for the project, underscoring that South Sudan is a landlocked country and must have enough stock inside to avoid crisis related dispute or slight incidents at the border.

The NilePet Director said the yet-to-be built depot will serve as a distribution station for local consumption.

“This area is for strategic depot so that we can have a reserve in the country right now. We are a landlocked country and if you’re a landlocked country, you must have enough stock inside the country,” he said as reported on SSBC.

“This is because of any small dispute or any slight incident at the border. Then you’re most likely going to get into serious trouble.”

“I think what happened in the pipeline is a good lesson for all of us as South Sudanese, that when you depend on one commodity and one direction, it can become hard when things go wrong.”

In a significant move to reduce this dependency, the government has recently launched upgrading of an oil refinery in Unity State.

According to the national oil firm NilePet, the Bentiu Oil Refinery in Unity State would be fully operational in around 8 months to supply local markets with fuel products at a capacity of 10,000 barrels per day.

The country’s crude oil export, which is the chief revenue generator, plummeted following damage to one of the pipelines passing through Sudan amid the ongoing civil war there.