Angola, South Sudan to share expertise in oil & gas sector

Oil- producing Angola is considering sharing technical expertise with South Sudan to improve production in the oil and gas sector.

This was revealed on Monday by Eng. Sianga Abílio, the Angolan Ambassador to South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia in an interview with The Dawn newspaper in Juba.

Abilio said he recently met and discussed with Puot Kang Chol, the South Sudan Minister of Petroleum on areas of deepening cooperation between the oil and gas sectors of the two countries.

“Angola has been producing oil for decades now, our production is over 1 million barrels a day already,  we have built a lot of capacity in this sector mainly we act as concessioner , our company is the body  which is defending  the interest of the state in the sharing agreements that we have  with oil companies,” said Abilio.

He was referring to Angola’s state-owned oil company, Sonangol which manages the shares of government just like South Sudan’s Nile Petroleum Corporation Limited (NILEPET).

Abilio explained that his country is eager to share experience and deepen cooperation with South Sudan with the aim of not only improving production but also legislation in the oil and gas sector.

The envoy emphasized the importance of strong legal framework in the management of the oil and gas sector.

Abilio also highlighted the areas of capacity building, saying that Angola with it’s de cades experience in the oil and gas sector could help build capacity of their South Sudanese counterparts.

“We are ready to share, we are Africans and that’s why we call for cooperation,” Abilio said.

 “If you cannot invite your brother and share with him a meal to eat in your house then why call ourselves brothers,” he asked.

Abilio revealed that he agreed with the South Sudan minister of petroleum to send a team this year to Angola to benefit from knowledge and experience sharing.

“The Minister of Petroleum of South Sudan will be sending a technical team to Angola to talk with our people to see how they can benefit, also the minister of foreign affairs said he will make himself available to meet his brother in Angola,” he said.

He said that the current generation of Africans needs to benefit from oil because it’s not renewable source of energy.

“You need to use the oil to develop other industries like agriculture to keep the economy running and also develop agricultural industries to feed people,” said Abilio.

 Angola holds abundant untapped oil and gas resources estimated at 9 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves and 11 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves.

The country currently produces approximately 1.16 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) but hit as high as 2 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) by 2010 during prosperous oil production years.

 The petroleum industry is key and accounts for almost 75 percent of the country’s revenues. It records an estimated 17,9billion cubic feet of natural gas production from associated oil.