Nilepet was established in 2003 under the Civil Authority for New Sudan (CANS) to link the oil companies with CANS, the then civil government in the liberated areas of South Sudan. Nilepet was incorporated on the 1st day of June 2009 under the New (South) Sudan Companies Act 2003 by the Ministry of Legal Affairs and Constitutional Development, government of South Sudan.

Nilepet is the technical, operational & commercial arm of the Ministry of Petroleum & and Mining in the government of the Republic of South Sudan. Nilepet was created to build the national technical capabilities of the Government of South Sudan and to maximize Government take of oil profit.

South Sudan has proved reserves of 3.5 billion barrels of oil, with much of the country still unexplored. The government, led by President Salva Kiir, is keen to raise oil production and has been seeking international investors.

EXPLORATION

The main task for the Exploration Department is to carry out all exploration activities starting from block promotion, licensing, Seismic operations, wild cat and appraisal identification, basins modeling and G&G studies.
Exploration department in Nilepet is currently playing the following roles in conjunction with the JOCs:

• To participate and monitor the implementation of geological and geophysical (seismic survey, acquisition, processing, interpretation and mapping) activities.
• To ensure all exploration drilling activities in JOCs are conducted in a proper manner
• To Participate and monitor G&G studies.
• To provide technical advices during blocks promotion.
• Participate in the JOC’s exploration planning.
• To ensure that all exploration activities are done as per the approved WPB.

FIELD DEVELOPMENT

Development department is responsible for the systematic and timely transformation of petroleum resources to reserves through integration of subsurface inputs to formulate an optimum Field Development Project/Plan (FDP) which leads to the facilities design i.e. is the custodian of the resources management throughout Exploration & Production cycle.

Currently, Development Department in Nilepet, as a national partner, is to participate, facilitate, monitor and evaluate the development plans carried out by the JOC which includes:

• Initiation of field development projects (FDP) studies and to decide economic evaluation of the project to determine the profitability of the field during the life-time and the cash flow allocation.
• Recommendation on number of development wells to be drilled.
• Planning for well completion & work over jobs for maintenance and/or perforation of the newly identified potential zones.
• Initiation of production forecasting during the life time of the field.
• Planning for liquid lifting mechanism whether naturally or artificially (pumps).
• Adopting oil production enhancement strategy through water injection or any other advanced technology.
• Proposing Field surface Facilities (FSF) and Field Processing Facilities (FPF).
• Management of the reservoir during the production life cycle.
• Monitoring the implementation of the recommended development plans from the studies.

In October 2018, South Sudan’s Ministry of Petroleum signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Russia-based JSC Zarubezhneft to begin exploring the country’s open acreage and trading, as well as implement enhanced oil recovery technology and other maintenance programs.

The MoU, signed in Juba by Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, Minister of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan and Dr. Sergey I. Kudryashov, General Director of JSC Zarubezhneft, will be in effect until October 2019.

It also includes the construction of oil and oil products storage and trading networks both for the internal market of South Sudan and for the neighboring countries and assisting South Sudan’s state-owned oil company on stock workover and maintenance efforts on existing wells.

Under the agreement, Nilepet, South Sudan’s state-owned oil company, will share information on current projects and new projects possible for joint operation. JSC Zarubezhneft will also provide technical assistance on engineering and research and development.

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