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China’s CNPC Evacuates Most Of Its Staff From South Sudan

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Wednesday, July 20th, 2016
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Photo: Pbase.com
Photo: Pbase.com

China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) has evacuated the bulk of its workers from South Sudan after fighting started in the capital Juba earlier this month, but its operations were unaffected, a CNPC-run paper said on Tuesday.

Many foreigners have been evacuated from South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, which is still recovering from a two-year civil war that started in 2013 which killed tens of thousands of people and drove more than 2.5 million from their homes.

The latest fighting erupted on July 7 and lasted for four days. It was between followers of http://af.reuters.comPresident Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, the former rebel leader who became vice president under a deal to end a two-year civil war. The violence killed at least 272 people.

“From July 12-18, the company has successfully evacuated 191 CNPC employees due to the conflict in South Sudan. CNPC also helped to evacuate another 157 people working in China organizations there,” CNPC’s China Oil News said.

“So far, CNPC’s production operations are still stable and in good order in South Sudan.”

Other leading investors in South Sudan’s oil industry include Malaysia’s state-run oil and gas firm Petronas and India’s ONGC Videsh.

In 2014, CNPC entered into an agreement with South Sudan to boost production of existing oilfields, with its engineering and services team working with oil producers in three blocks, and also conduct training on technologies to enhance oil recovery (EOR).

CNPC said after the evacuation it will have 77 staff members left to maintain security at its operations, with 24 of them based in Juba.

South Sudan’s oil production, which stood at 245,000 barrels per day before violence in December 2013, is down by roughly a third.

(Reporting Hong Kong Newsroom; Writing by George Obulutsa in Nairobi, editing by William Hardy)

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