He pointed his country’s oil revenue last year was hit by reduced output due to the ongoing internal armed conflict and the rapid worldwide decline in oil prices.
Oil is the largest source of income for South Sudan but its production has been hit by the fighting which broke out in December 2013 in the wake of a power struggle between president Salva Kiir and former vice president Riek Machar.
The total oil revenue last year was $3.38 billion from the sale of 36.6 million barrels.
Violence has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced over a million others. It also resulted in damage to some of the country’s oil fields while production at others was affected by a lack of spare parts.
Oil production fell by about a third to an average 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) since fighting broke out, from 245,000 bpd just before the violence erupted.
According to Reuters, Dau said in a statement on Saturday that after deducting $884 million in payments due to Sudan and loan repayments of $781 million, the government of South Sudan was left with $1.71 billion from its oil revenue.
Oil used to be the main source for Sudan’s budget until southern secession in July 2011, when Khartoum lost 75 percent of its oil production and its status as oil exporter overnight.
Culled from Sudantribune.
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