By Eng. Kurthii Manyuat Makuach, Juba, South Sudan
Saturday, September 19, 2020 (PW) — Nilepet is a business wing of government of the Republic of South Sudan. Like China national petroleum corporation (CNPC) and Malaysian Petronas, nilepet is state owned oil enterprise. However, Knowing nilepet and what it does in contrast to what it’s other partners do, a simple question arouse curiosity of many people; does nilepet looks beyond parameters of the state? The answer to the question could be another topic on its own right in another day.
What’s conspicuous is that nine years have gone down since the people of this great country raised their sacred flag at freedom Square and that nilepet is still incapable of drilling its own oil well. China ‘s CNPC (China National petroleum corporation) and Petronas of Malaysia did not simultaneously become global oil enterprise out of blue, or rather they simply didn’t fell from the cloud along with their oil operation tools and technical personnel.
They started by being curious and aggressively willing to involve with both their hands, knees and feet in the oil business. Currently , they are all over Asia, Africa and beyond, participating in oil concessions bidding.
While our state’s company is writhing on its back, unable to raise up normally like others. The problem as technocrats observed from the downhill is that nilepet is not viewed as a private business company that should be left alone to operate, thrive and ultimately bring income to national accounts. Instead its a mere shad where oil-end return( petrodollar) is divided among those who are holding sharp knives in the government.
In the last month of August, we heard it from the street while going about our own businesses, the announcement that nilepet is preparing to takeover oil operations from international oil operators in the near future. That could have been a great deal of good news for the country had there been any explicit plans on how to do it on the mat.
Erecting a single services rigs by the help of Sudanese engineers should not have shot optimism to such a highest point. Yet, Our leaders, time and again, tricks us by carefully zooming and bolding their words that never comes to realisation.
Nilepet will remain a nilepet and a change of managing director will never bring about transformation unless the invisible powers that remotely control it turn loose their grips on it.
Nilepet must get involved in the oil operation business not just as a mere messenger between government and foreign partners but with its rigs and drilling bits. And if that means outcompeting our foreign partners and chasing them away, so be it. For how long shall we continue to sit in front of oil well waiting Chinese and Malaysian to do drilling for us?
Most local petroleum engineers are pretty much concerned about the way our oil is being extracted by our friends. Around oilfield, environment is suffering a great deal but thats not the only thing that raise the eyebrows, the use of ESP( electric submersible pump) pump would leave a significant negative impact on our reservoir in the long run.
ESP is a pumping equipment installed down at the bottom hole of oil producing well to suck and pull out hydrocarbon fluid to the top surface. Its a rude method of oil pumping commonly adopted by aggressive and insecure investors. after ESP made a clean job of sucking-dry the oil well in a very pretty short time, its leave a collapsed reservoir sands behind it as a sign of a rude work done and the rude people who did it.
There are normally three stages of oil production; primary, which happens naturally using natural energy of the reservoir, secondary stage by injection water down the hole to help displace oil towards producing well, and tritary production stage done by means of injecting chemicals substances and other sophisticated solutions to the oil well.
Some oil field in South sudan are on primary production stage but majority at secondary stage and if ESP pump continue to be unsympathetically applied, reservoir will get damaged making tertiary stage impossible in the future. Any way that’s that. Mess is not only what’s usually seen on upper surface, worse are happening down the hole and we are not seeing it.
South sudan does not lack anything to begin with. Hundreds of petroleum engineers and geologist educated both locally and abroad are wandering streets of Juba, eager to contribute and pay back the debt owed to mother country. But nilepet as well as other oil operating companies have tightly shut their doors, leaving only a backdoor for special appointments.
We have witnessed that in various occasions when a person is appointed, mission of the people who help get him/her appointed comes first. As we applaud and congratulate the appointments of Eng. Bol Ring Mourwel as managing director of Nile-pet, things are still vague as to which way he would take. Will he take high road of achieving goals and missions and visions of nilepet by developing, medium and long terms plans for nilepet or will he ops for low road of achieving short terms goals of those who lobied him into position.
Let’s be optimistic for while that the new appointed technocrats will chose a lonely road that nobody step feet into, and he will unhesitatingly undast our young engineers from the street, pick tools from the market and altogether take them to any uppernile oil block. That could make a remarkable beginning for the new nilepet manager.
And when time comes for nilepet to takeover oil operation, atleast people could be found ready because the takeover or change of skill is not going to be a simple change of an outfit, its tedious, complex and convoluted.
There’s always a gnawing fear of risk specially when undertaking new business terrotaries that had never been undertaken before. Stumbling, a misstep and outright blunder in a new frontier job is always inevitable, however, if Eng. Bol could be so brave and begin pursuing transformation agenda for nilepet, without an ouch of doubt, in two to three years period, South Sudanese could be begging Uganda or Kenya to award them oil concession contract like CNPC and Petronas does it in other countries.
The author, Eng. Kurthii Manyuat Makuach, is a concerned South Sudanese citizen who can be reached via his email address: Kurmanyuat@gmail.com