South Sudan recent oil discovery in commercial scale in Northern Upper Nile State has been projected for licensing round by first quarter of 2002. The country new oil well discovery in the Adar area of Northern Upper Nile State that contains 5.3 million barrels of recoverable crude was announced by the Petroleum Minister Awow Daniel Chuang. “This is the first of its kind since independence” in 2011, Chuang told reporters in the capital, Juba. “As of now, we are so excited about this.” Mr.Chuang said. The discovery by Dar Petroleum Operating Company is a significant step forward in the exploration and production of crude in the African nation, which is recovering from five years of crisis, he said. “It’s a new structure in an old concession area,an additional discovery to existing production about 15 kilometers (9miles) from the Adar oilfield, which means we can start production within a very short time. “It’s a discovery of 37 million barrels, and we are expecting to recover about 20% of that,” he said.“As we announce this new discovery,it means we should move to do more.
We are going to move to other blocks– B1 and B2 and E1 and E2 — and all the other areas, including the green areas,” he added. South Sudan is country ravaged by civil wars since independence in 2011 which the resultant effect of the war in the in area of oil exploration activities in this African region was disrupted. The plans offering of 14 oil blocks to exploration companies in a licensing round by the first quarter 2020 was announced by the oil minister and this approach is different from its previous method of direct negotiations with explorers. The country a majorly oil “As we announce this new discovery, it means we should move to do more. We are going to move to other blocks — B1 and B2 and E1 and E2 — and all the other areas, including the green areas” driven economy is currently producing 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day, as it struggles to restructure its battered economy after a five-year civil war. Announcing the plan offer of 14 oil blocks to interesting exploration companies at the AOP conference, Mr. Chuang emphasized on the plan level field approach as a key point to the license round. “We are inviting all our investors that wanted to invest in South Sudan to come and move onto those blocks,” Awow Daniel Chuang, told an Africa Oil and Power conference. “We are inviting all our investors that wanted to invest in South Sudan to come and move onto those blocks,” Awow Daniel Chuang, told an Africa Oil and Power conference. “We are opening up the licensing rounds for everyone on a competitive basis and this is will help us to get the right partners, investors that can be easily verified because we don’t want to continue to have direct negotiations.” According to Chuang, the blocks to be offered for licensing will be blocks A1 to A6 and at present data was being collected on them. “Within the next two months, we should be able to complete the work by the first quarter of 2020, we will be having our first licensing round,” he said. South Sudan has signed series of oil production contracts with major oil companies and partners in recent years, These include; Oranto Petroleum, which signed a six-year exploration and production sharing agreement for block B3 in 2017 and production sharing agreement for Block B2 with South Africa. With the recent licensing plan, South Sudan oil production is expected to hit pre-war oil production levels of 350,000 to 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) by mid-2020.