Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol. |Courtesy.

The Minister of Petroleum has recommended renegotiation of the Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement between the government and joint oil operating companies in South Sudan after oil deals expired in 2027.

The agreement – whose term will end in 2027 – was signed between the government of South Sudan and DAR Petroleum Operating Company, or DPOC, Greater Pioneer Operating Company, GPOC, and Sudd Petroleum Operating Company, or SPOC.

It is not clear why the minister recommended the renegotiation of the agreement with the three oil operating companies.

However, the Dar Petroleum Operating Company is the consortium made up of China National Petroleum Corporation, the majority shareholder, State-owned Nilepet, Malaysia’s Petronas, Sinopec, and Tri-Ocean Energy, operates the main oil fields – Block 3 and 7 – in the Melut Basin.

The Greater Pioneer Operating Company is a consortium with a production capacity of 38,000 barrels per day of high-quality Nile Blend.

Meanwhile, the Sudd Petroleum Operating Company operates South Sudan’s Block 5A, which has a production capacity of up to 80,000 barrels per day of high-quality Nile blend.

In addition to increasing production at the Thar Jath field, the company last year announced intentions to restart production at the Mala field in 2023.

Minister Puot believes renegotiating the agreement between the government of South Sudan and the Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement will best position the country to develop its oil industry.

“Renegotiate and rewrite a cash generation coded for EPSA, We are recommending Your Excellency [Hussein Abdelbagi] that come 2027 for example DPOC, we need to renegotiate the EPSA,” Puot said during the first national economic conference in Juba.

“I’m asking whether it is Puot Kang will be the minister or whoever will come there, if you are there please protect that person,” he said.

“The first thing that will happen is that, that person if he [she] we need to renegotiate this, he [she] will be accused. But all the figures that we have depended on that EPSA, even if we produce a million barrels a day, EPSA can buy.”

In June this year, the former minister of finance and planning, Dier Tong Ngor disclosed that the projected oil production for this fiscal year dropped from 150,000 to 132,362 barrels per day due to the depletion of some oil wells.

The decline is from 150,000 barrels in the previous fiscal year.

Tong attributed the daily reduction of 17,638 barrels to the depletion of some oil wells and the adverse effects of floods in the past two years.