AfrOil: South Sudan plans slow-motion nationalisation of oil sector

Awow Daniel Chuang, the undersecretary of South Sudan’s Ministry of Petroleum, said on May 6 that Nilepet, the national oil company (NOC), had begun the process of taking over the projects now led by foreign investors.

Speaking to reporters in Juba, Chuang said South Sudan wanted to gain more control over its own oil industry so that it could collect a larger share of revenues, even if output levels sink. This takeover will be a gradual process and not an abrupt seizure, carried out over a period of five years as existing contracts expire, he stated.

He also said that Nilepet would work to ensure that departing investors engaged in skills and knowledge transfer. “Nationalisation will be done through training where we are able,” he told reporters. “In areas where we don’t have expertise, we will have to use foreigners for a very short period of time” until such skills can be acquired, he commented.