South Sudan's oil production plummets due to Covid, floods

(poandpo.com)

Juba, Feb 3 (IANS) South Sudan's oil production has reduced from the previous 170,000 barrels a day to the current 156,000 bpd amid negative impacts of Covid-19 pandemic and heavy flooding since 2020, an official said.

Agak Achuil Lual, minister of Finance and Economic Planning while tabling the 2021/22 fiscal budget before the transitional national legislative assembly, said the projected reduction in oil production is due to depletion of some oil wells as well as effects of floods, reports Xinhua news agency.

South Sudan earned $1.4 billion in gross oil revenues of which $1.1 billion went to direct transfers, $148 million were paid to neighbouring Sudan as cost for processing, transportation and transit fees.

The east African Nation is projected to collect $135 million in non-oil revenues in this fiscal year, an increase of 31.1 per cent from $103 millio in the previous 2020/21 fiscal year.

"The projected increase in non-oil revenues is on account of the tax administration reforms that we are implementing at the national revenue authority, which include digitization of tax collections, broadening the tax base and the proposal to fully deploy national revenue authority staff in all the non-oil revenue collecting institutions," said Achuil.

South Sudan, the world's youngest republic which depends 95 per cent on oil revenues, is struggling to recover from years of conflict.