South Sudan to construct four oil refineries

JUBA – South Sudan government has said that it plans to construct four oil refineries in the country’s Bentiu, Paloch, Thiangrial and Pagak, according to the Nilepet Director-General for Downstream, James Yugusuk.

Currently, the world’s youngest country which only depends on oil revenue for 98 percent of its budget do not have a local refinery and has to depend on import of fuel despite being one of the largest oil exporter in the East African region.

Yugusuk said the state-run oil firm, Nilepet, is aimed to be a world-class operator by 2022 by training local engineers to the world standards and that the company is aimed at constructing four refineries in four locations in the world’s youngest country.

“We want to have our own block to operate”, Yugusuk said. “We want to raise world class South Sudanese technical staff and we want to construct four refineries: one in Bentiu, Paloch, Pagak and Thiangrial. All those are producing blocks.

Yugusuk also said the government plans to “construct depots in major towns in South Sudan which is a very ambitious plan because we need to have strategic reserves.”

“We want to extend our retail outlets to all the major towns in South Sudan. We want to have a very robust and highly effective JV and this is for companies and people who are willing to do that. We also want to have a strong footprint in the research and development programmes.”

Starting from 2013, Nilepet started participating in Joint Operating Companies in the country, holding stakes on behalf of the government in these JOCs through which it builds capacity of its staff.