The South Sudanese president has ordered the removal of a state minister of petroleum and mining, saying that the position was unconstitutional in the first place.

Upper Nile Petroleum Minister Francis Ayul, the official fired by the order, last week said the state government ordered oil workers to shut down production at the Gumri and Adar oil fields as a security precaution.

The shut-down order was later reversed by the national government, a presidency official said Saturday, downplaying the threat of an attack on the oil fields.

Formally, the latest decree by President Salva Kiir is said to order Governor Simon Kun Pouch to revoke the appointment of the state oil minister, though the text of the decree itself has not yet been made public.

‘Supply challenges’

In a press release yesterday the national Ministry of Petroleum acknowledged that Dar Petroleum Operating Company has “reduced the number of non-essential staff in Paloich,” but insisted that output continues as normal.

At blocks 3 and 7, which produce Dar Blend crude,  “oil production is progressing normally in spite of the recent fighting in and around Malakal town,” the ministry stated.

“The output currently stands at 165,000 barrels per day. Drop in oil production is mainly due to operational and materials supply challenges and this will be rectified soonest,” added the statement issued in the name of Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau.

This mentioned ‘supply challenges’ were earlier attributed to the closure of barge traffic on the Nile, owing to the security situation, according to the ministry’s press secretary Nicodemus Ajak.

State oil ministries ‘unconstitutional’

In remarks on Eye Radio in Juba yesterday, the presidential spokesman Ateny Wek explained the decision to fire the Upper Nile minister was ‘overdue’ because the Upper Nile governor never in fact had powers to appoint a state oil minister.

“The decision was overdue from the start when the governor of Upper Nile State, Simon Kun Pouch, appointed someone to be a minister of petroleum at state level. The decision itself was unconstitutional because things like petroleum are not the property of the state, they are the property of the entire nation,” he said.

The spokesman added that in spite being an oil-producing state, “it doesn’t mean that they own the oil so that they have a minister of that kind.”

“The President last time asked Governor Simon Kun Pouch to revoke that appointment, but he did not do it until the start of the war and Upper Nile now is under a state of emergency so it is a prerogative of the President to come in and cancel whatever appointment that he sees to be unconstitutional,’’ he said.

File photo: Minister of Petroleum, Mining and Industry Hon. Stephen Dhieu Dau (Radio Tamazuj)

Related coverage:

Oil ministry: Technical problems at Upper Nile fields (20 Feb.)

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