Page 7 - AfrOil Week 41 2019

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South Sudan unveils medium and long-term oil production goals
SOUTH SUDAN
A representative of South Sudan’s Petroleum Ministry reported last week that his country had set medium and long-term goals for oil production.
According to Arkangelo Okwang Oler, the ministry’s director-general for planning, train- ing and research, South Sudan is currently extracting crude oil at the rate of 178,000 bar- rels per day and hopes to boost yields to 200,000 bpdwithinthenexttwoyears.Inthelongterm, he said, the country will push output up even further, to 350,000 bpd.
“We are working on increasing the produc- tion of oil,” said Oler, who was speaking during an industry conference in Cape Town. He did not say exactly long South Sudan might take to bring output up to 350,000 bpd.
Prior to the outbreak of civil war in 2012, South Sudan was producing about 350,000 bpd of oil. Output levels have yet to recover, but offi- cials in Juba are optimistic that conditions will improve as a result of reconciliation between opposing factions.
Changes are due to occur in the short term. Last month, South Sudanese President Salva
Kiir Mayardit agreed to work with Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon, a former vice-president who has been leading the rebel faction known as Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Op- position (SPLM-IO), to establish a transitional government.
Oler described the agreement between Kiir and Machar as a positive development, saying: “I am optimistic that we are moving toward a stablegovernment.”
He also told the audience that the Petro- leum Ministry intended to launch its next bid- ding round before the end of the month. Awow Daniel Chuang, the head of the ministry, will officially open the tender for eight licence areas during the South Sudan Oil & Power confer- ence, which is scheduled to take place in Juba on October 29-30, he said.
“We are inviting companies to come and impart your technologies based on the best international practices,” he stated. “South Sudan is the current destination for investment.”
Juba intends to reveal the results of the licensing round before the end of the first quar- ter of 2020, he added. ™
ANPG representative comments on Angola’s new lease management policy
POLICY
ANGOLA
BELARMINO Chittargueleca, the head of the exploration and production department of Angola’s National Agency for Petroleum, Natu- ral Gas and Biofuels (ANPG), said last week that his country’s decision to alter the way it man- ages the use and ownership of its hydrocarbons reserves was already starting to pay off.
During a meeting with Nina Maria Fite, the US ambassador to Angola, in New Orleans last week, Chittargueleca noted that ANPG had begun acting as lease manager for the country’s oil and gas fields when it was established in early 2019. Luanda assigned this task to the agency so that it could be handled independently of Sonangol, the national oil company (NOC), he explained.
It also took this step with the aim of improv- ing the investment climate, he indicated. “The goal of the ANPG is to promote transparency, eliminate conflicts of interest, simplify business processes and promote a business environment
that maximises state revenue,” he was quoted as saying by World Oil.
According to Chittargueleca, these efforts are already bearing fruit. ANPG’s first act as conces- sionaire has been to auction off 55 undeveloped blocks, and potential investors have responded in a “positive” manner at the agency’s roadshow presentations, he said, without elaborating.
The upcoming auctions will mark Angola’s first bidding round in seven years. ANPG said in early October that it would accept offers for 10 frontier blocks in the Namibe and Benguela Basins until November 12.
The agency worked with the IHS Markit consultancy to hold roadshow presentations on these assets in Luanda, Houston, London and Dubai in September.
Chittargueleca and several other Angolan officials travelled to New Orleans last week to attend the Louisiana Gulf Coast Oil & Gas Exhi- bition (LAGCOE).
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