Page 14 - AfrOil Week 30

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

South Sudan reports oil output down

more than 10.5% since January

SOUTH SUDAN SOUTH Sudan’s crude oil output has dropped
by 20,000 barrels per day (bpd), or more than
10.5%, in the last six months, according to
Awow Daniel Chuang, the undersecretary of
the country’s Ministry of Petroleum.
Chuang told reporters recently that South
Sudan was currently producing about 170,000
bpd, down from the figure of 190,000 bpd
reported in January. Fields in Unity State
accounted for about half of the decline, as they
saw yields drop from 60,000 bpd to 50,000
bpd, and fields in Upper Nile State made up
the remainder, with production sinking from
130,000 bpd to 120,000 bpd, he said.
He attributed the decline to the coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic. Public health measures
designed to rein in the outbreak have disrupted
operations at a number of key oil deposits and
have also delayed the opening of a small oil
refinery near Juba, he stated.
More specifically, Chuang said, restrictions
on movement and travel have affected South
Sudan’s supply chain by delaying the delivery
of goods and equipment to ports in Kenya and
Sudan. Those goods were needed to support oil South Sudan depends on Sudanese pipelines (Image: EIA)
production and work on the 8,000 bpd Safinat
refinery, which was originally due to begin oper- 200,000 bpd in 2020 and rise to 350,000 bpd by
ating in late 2019, he explained. 2025. Chuang said, though, that this goal was no
He also indicated that anti-coronavirus longer realistic. On the one hand, world crude
measures had complicated efforts to move the prices are so low that the country’s oil fields are
country’s oil to port for sale on the world mar- not breaking even; on the other hand, he noted,
ket. He did not go into detail, but he said that South Sudan is participating in the OPEC+
transport routes between the oilfields and Port agreement, which restricts production in the
Sudan, which serves as the terminus of two oil hope of supporting world crude markets. The
pipelines originating in South Sudan, had expe- country is working to balance its own desire
rienced logistical disruptions. to raise output and earnings and the OPEC+
South Sudanese officials had said previously group’s desire to prevent another crash in oil
that they expected oil production to average prices, he said. ™

POLICY
FBNQuest: Nigeria moves

towards fuel market reform

NIGERIA NIGERIA’S downstream sector is moving “The downstream oil & gas business is typ-
towards badly needed reform, African asset ically low-margin. [But] other factors, mainly
manager FBNQuest said in a research note on constraining policies, have led to historically low
July 23, noting that “constraining” policies had investments in the sector over the last decade,”
sapped investment over the last decade. FBNQuest analyst Uwadiae Osadiaye said.

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 30 29•July•2020