South Sudan’s petroleum ministry has signed new contracts with oil companies from Nigeria and Russia, a senior government official who demanded anonymity said on Wednesday in Juba.
The official said the war-ravaged young nation is currently producing just over 150,000 barrels per day and that the government wants to scale up oil output to 350,000 barrels per day it used to produce before the civil war broke out.
“Juba has signed new deals with many companies to explore new oil sites and operate in existing fields that are currently not operational. We already have Chinese and Malaysian companies, but the new ones are from Russia and Nigeria,” the official said.
“Basically, companies from Russia and Nigeria will get some percentages from existing oil fields but their main assignment is to explore new oil sites,” he added.
