By: Peter Dhal Makam, Juba.

Happy and prosperous new year in advance to His Excellency President Salva Kiir Mayardit, His Excellency the first Vice President, Dr. Riak Machar Teny, Their Excellencies the Deputy Presidents, the Honorable Minister of Petroleum Puot Kang, the Honourable Undersecretary Ministry of Petroleum, Hon. Mayen Wol Jong the Chairman of the NILEPET Board of Directors, Dr. Barnabas Marial Benjamin, the Managing Director of NILEPET, Dr. Chol Deng Thon Abel and the entire staff NILEPET Corporation, may God continue to bless us with wisdom to take this great institution to the next level in terms of development.

As we commemorate the end of the year 2022 this week in December, I have a few points to make. The highlights and lowlights will be outlined, together with a brief discussion of the plan for the following year, an update on the status of existing operations, and the institution’s desire to enjoy the holiday with her staff and the people of South Sudan. As it is common knowledge, Nile Petroleum Corporation was founded before South Sudan’s independence and afterwards registered under the Companies Act of 2009, the Petroleum Act of 2012, and the NILEPET Act of 2019.

NILEPET’S integrated, holistic master plan, or vision 2027, which outlines Dr. Chol’s vision for the organization and covers the upstream, midstream, and downstream of the oil industry, is still on track. NILEPET will train engineers and geoscientists to broaden their technical knowledge and work ethics to accomplish this vision. NILEPET aspires to inherit the oil sector after beginning the process of creating a company’s foundation. By God’s grace, potential investors are entering the nation, and our own talented young South Sudanese are graduating and ready to take on the challenge of developing the nation to achieve the vision of 2027 set forth by Dr Chol Deng Thon. Greater employment opportunities will be developed as we refine our fuel, according to this goal.

INTERNAL CORPORATION

I am ecstatic about the effort my colleagues have put into the organization because, as we all know, NILEPET is the main source of income for the country. To further the greater good of “vision 2027” expansion, NILEPET inheriting the oil blocks, and the creation of more jobs, I would want to encourage us to keep up the same zeal. As the saying goes, “two heads are better than one,” so maintaining unity at work is essential. I, for one, consult others when I encounter problems, so there are people with whom to consult; kindly let’s work as a team to raise the bar for work ethic and productivity in this great institution.

I want to dissuade people from spreading rumours and false information about our organization because doing so damages our company’s reputation. Our reputation as NILEPET is crucial because it may either draw investors in or drive them away as we work to improve and raise the bar of our ethics and productivity. For instance, there is a persistent propaganda campaign by a few elites who don’t read the news that encourages us to despise such acts. We are continuously working to improve both the petroleum economy and the pure biomass economy in our nation; as a result, we deserve better and are capable of doing better. The joint process of refining crude oil in Bentiu is eminent. This partnership had been in the works since 2012, but the Higlig war plus internal instability had unfortunately delayed.

EXTERNAL CORPORATION.

NILEPET continues to collaborate and work in the business with other amiable national operating corporations as well as joint entity businesses. This includes, among others, GPOC and DPOC. Thank you in particular to the Managing Director of Energy Capital and Power, who continues to be a crucial and trustworthy partner in the marketing of the south Sudanese oil industry. The yearly “OIL and POWER” conferences have been held in Juba, the nation’s capital, thanks in large part to him. South Sudan is always referred to as the “emerging centre for regional petroleum” by him.

In addition, the ministry has purchased land in Djibouti for South Sudanese to use for petroleum business, as stated by the honourable minister of petroleum during the oil and power conference. I, therefore, encourage partners and stakeholders to take advantage of this opportunity. Here at NILEPET business, the year 2022 has been quite fruitful; the bright points much outweigh the poor points. Through the ministry of petroleum, to which NILEPET belonged, NILEPET received invitations to several conferences, among them APPEC 2022 in Singapore, ATCE in Houston, Texas, and ADIPEC held by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in the United Arab Emirates.

This year’s market prices, for your knowledge, have increased due to Russia’s special military actions in Ukraine. Due to rationing that has occurred throughout the world, Japan and South Africa have restarted coal mines that had previously been shut down to increase energy.