JUBA, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan on Wednesday said 70 percent of its country's oil producing fields have remained unexplored and urged international energy companies to explore them in a bid to spur the country's economic revival.
Ezekiel Lul Gatkuoth, minister of petroleum said that despite Africa's youngest country only exploring 30 percent of its oil fields, he is optimistic that by the end of the year, the country will restore production to the level before the civil war.
"By the end of Dec. 31, 2018 we must go back to what we used to produce, which is 290,000 barrels per day before the war broke out in mid-December 2013," Gatkuoth told a three-day energy forum in Juba.
He said the government has signed exploration agreements with three international oil and service companies as part of plans to boost the production so as to achieve a win-win partnership between the government and the oil companies.
"We have been working closely with our partners to realize the resumption in block 1, 2 and 4. We really thank them for their opportunity that they are providing to the people of South Sudan," the minister said.
Gatkuoth revealed that Juba and Khartoum are working jointly to rehabilitate the Unity Power Plant in order to increase oil production as soon as possible.
Azharia Abdalla, Sudan's petroleum minister said that President Bashir's government is committed to supporting President Salva Kiir's administration to expand its oil exportation to the world market.
"As I speak to you now there is more than 800,000 barrels of South Sudan oil in Port Sudan ready for export now," Abdalla said.
He disclosed that the two countries will soon sign an agreement that will see South Sudanese geologists, engineers, and technicians visit Khartoum oil facilities to learn and borrow some of the successful technologies that they use.
South Sudan in partnership with African Oil and Power (AOP) organized a three-day international energy forum to woo foreign oil companies and services in an effort to revamp its vital energy infrastructure and spark economic growth.
According to the World Bank, South Sudan is the most oil-dependent nation in the world, with oil accounting for almost all of its exports and around 60 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
