The world’s youngest country, South Sudan, plans to construct four refineries in four locations in the country. They are Bentiu, Paloch, Thiangrial and Pagak.

The Nilepet Director-General for Downstream, James Yugusuk, said state-owned oil company wants to be a world-class operator by 2022. To achieve this, Nilepet will be training local engineers to global standards.

South Sudan currently depends on revenues from oil for 98% of its budget. It does not have a local refinery and imports fuel even though it is one of the largest oil exporters in the East-central African region.

Since 2013, Nilepet has been participating in Joint Operating Companies (JOCs) in South Sudan. It holds stakes on behalf of the South Sudanese government in several JOCs through which it builds its staff capacity.

The DG said, “We want to have our own block to operate.”

“We want to raise world class South Sudanese technical staff and we want to construct four refineries: one in Bentiu, Paloch, Pagak and Thiangrial. All those are producing blocks.”

“[the government plans to] construct depots in major towns in South Sudan which is a very ambitious plan because we need to have strategic reserves.”

“We want to extend our retail outlets to all the major towns in South Sudan. We want to have a very robust and highly effective JV and this is for companies and people who are willing to do that. We also want to have a strong footprint in the research and development programmes.”