Oil field Thar Jath in Unity State, South Sudan. (Photo: Courtesy).

The government of South Sudan said it has signed a 3-billion-dollar agreement with a U.S.-based company to invest in the country’s oil sector and acquire assets of outgoing Malaysian Petronas.

Finance Minister Dr Bak Barnaba Chol said the agreement with CalTech Trading Corporation has been in preparation since last month.

Dr. Chol explained that the U.S.-based firm will buy shares of Petronas for 1.2 billion dollars while the other 1.8 will be reserved for budgetary support.

“We have been into this deal since August 22^nd we finalized signing a timesheet in early September and he promised to meet our President and today he met our president,” said Bak, who accompanied President Kiir to New York for the UN General Assembly.

“The total amount of the deal is 3 billion divided into 1.8 budgetary support and 1. 2 for Petronas shares.”

“We are so excited that this deal has succeeded by having a formal agreement with the president and his work of commitment to achieve, finalize and realize the results of the deal.”

For his part, Mohammed Malik, the Chief Overseer of CalTech Investment, Mohammed Malik says the first transaction of 400 million US Dollars will be after 45 days.

He added that another 400 million dollars will be transacted after 30 days.

“We started the process on August 22, this is the fastest agreement that we completed. On our part, we are ready to receive the grantee from the government of South Sudan as the honourable said.”

“And in 45 days, they will receive the first transaction of 400 million which the honourable requested for us to do and another 400 million in another 30 days.”

“So, within two months, they will receive about 800 million US Dollars and our commitment is not with the Government of South Sudan, but with the people of South Sudan.”

Petronas announced in December 2022, that it has decided to pull out of South Sudan after 24 years of service to the country’s oil sector.

UK company – Savannah Energy reportedly signed an agreement to acquire the entire oil assets of Malaysian company Petronas in South Sudan for a total sum of $1.25bn US dollars.

However, the agreement fell after the South Sudan government disapproved of Savannah.

The incoming company, Caltech Trading Corp. (CTC), a subsidiary of Caltech Group, was incorporated in 2004 in New Jersey USA.

According to the CTC website, it is part of one of the multi-faceted largest and most widespread industrial groups having a sizeable presence in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, North & South America, India and Southeast Asia countries.

Caltech Trading Corp said it also deals with containerized Scrap Metal suppliers with over 15 bases of operations in approximately 10 countries around the world.