Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The Minister of Petroleum has urged foreign stakeholders in Vienna to come to South Sudan and invest in the construction of dams and hydroelectric power to end the use of fossil fuels.
Puot Kang Chol made the call during the 8th International Seminar of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC in Vienna, Austria last week.
South Sudan was admitted to OPEC Plus in 2017.
In the last week’s seminar, the OPEC International Seminar discussed energy transition, energy poverty eradication, climate change policies, and cooperation.
During the meeting, the Petroleum Minister was asked about pathways he thinks will expand access to power in South Sudan, given the power distribution is just 10 per cent across the country.
In his response, Minister Kang said the country lacks resources to invest in the energy sector and there are competing priorities.
However, the petroleum official told a panel that South Sudan has opportunities and he appealed to investors to come and invest in the energy sector.
“We have opportunities, we can create dams and hydroelectric power. All we need is an investment,” Puot said.
“As a government, our first responsibility is to make sure we exploit the resources that we have at hand, and what we have at hand now is a fossil fuel.”
“What we are asking others to do is to come and invest, and generate resources and income, and use this money to develop other sectors.”
The Minister said the poor road infrastructure has hindered development in the oil sector to generate power.
Puot says the lack of a road network has forced the government to shut down the only oil refinery that was commissioned in Unity State in 2021.
“We have a refinery in one of the States, which is far from Juba, it was going to produce 10,000 barrels per day,” said Puot.
“We started production with 3,000 barrels per day after we finished the construction of the refinery, but we were faced with another problem after the operation started.”
“We can’t transport the product because we don’t have roads. So, what I did was to order the shutdown of the refinery,” he said. “I can’t transport the product and my storage capacity is limited,” he added.
“I can’t continue to produce without enough storage, so the best thing was to shut it down until we get a means to transport the product.”
That was the Minister of Petroleum Puot Kang Chol addressing the OPEC meeting in Vienna, in Austra last week.
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