WHEN GOOD ECONOMIC MOMENTS ARE CLOUDED WITH UNFOUNDED CLAIMS
By: Ochan J David Silvio
It is an economic celebration in the air after a whole year long, of no oil production in South Sudan and for the last few months since the 8th of January 2025, production and export processes have been sustained as per conventional standards, with 90,000 barrels produced per day.
As it is, this development has come with its low and high moments as would be with any resumption of an economic activity of such a magnitude. In August this year, 2025, our neighbor currently beset by civil strife, officially wrote to our South Sudan government regarding the shutdown of the Heglig oil facility and this was owed to the drone attacks, that the Sudan government blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). We are all aware to the fact that, Heglig is the main processing facility for South Sudan’s oil, that currently accounts for 90% of our economy. Any misguided facts on such a huge government investment need to be clarified as they arise so as not mislead the confidence of the public in their own economy.
It was alleged that senior officials in the petroleum ministry, including Gen. Machar Bol, Eng Ayuel Ngorand Eng. Deng Lual colluded with the government of Sudan to issue a letter instructing the South Sudan government to announce a shutdown of oil production. These claims suggest this was a deliberate attempt to mislead the government and people of South Sudan, despite the fact that oil production is ongoing since January 2025, with just a little bit of governance hitches that are not from South Sudan government side. I wish to clarify that; a shutdown is a huge process which is usually executed by staff in the oil fields —not by ministry officials. We must then ask: Does this mean the entire staff in the oil fields is complicit in the process?
There is need for the public in South Sudan to be awake to the fact that, the production of oil has never stopped and that the trade with the international market is sustained. Diversion of trade between the government of South Sudan and the international market cannot, by all global conventional standards, be diverted to individual trade because the international oil market dynamics are not driven by individuals but global factors. Any attempt to try and interfere with any international transactions is punitive by the South Sudan trade laws and international petroleum trade laws and therefore above an individual.
With regard to the purported letter to have USD 2.5b borrowed from international coffers by individuals in the ministry of petroleum, it is but a fallacy because the government of South Sudan has diplomatic and external trade protocols that determine the co-existence of our oil industry with the international markets and these protocols are institutional and can never be directed by individuals. The request of the fiscal support, with a payment plan suggested, mark the word suggested, of 54 months, wall originated out of the need to cushion our management of shocks that have beset us due to both climatic and internal civil strife across various counties in our South Sudan. It is the sole responsibility of the government to provide safety net to livelihoods whenever the circumstances call for the interventions. I wish to put clear to our South Sudanese that the government has up to now, not receive this money of that weight claimed to have been borrowed by individuals.
The government of South Sudan has sustainably proven its unwavering support to the wellbeing of the South Sudanese, without compromising the spirit and call to service and that, accountability will always remain the best practice of governance.
