South Sudan has made a small, but significant oil discovery in Northern Upper Nile State, a government official said.

“It’s significant because it is an indication that we can still make more discoveries. We have not done this since independence,” Minister of Petroleum, Awow Daniel Chuang told reporters in Juba on Thursday.

He said the new field in the Adar area contains 5.3 million barrels of recoverable oil and will be linked to the nearby Paloch oilfields, which are operated by Dar Petroleum Operating Company (DOPC).

“What we have done already is a discovery of around 37 million standard stock barrels in place from the new oil discovery in Adar oilfield. This is the first of its kind in South Sudan,” the minister said.

“The new discovery is the concession area of Block 7,” he added.

Chuang said that the government would continue its oil search in other parts of the country to increase the young nation’s production levels.

“As we announce this new discovery, it means we should move to do more. We are going to move to other blocks, B1 and B2, E1 and E2 and the other areas including the green areas,” he explained.

The world’s youngest nation has one of the largest reserves of crude in sub-Saharan Africa. It plans to increase output to more than 350,000 barrels of crude per day by the middle of 2020, up from 180,000 barrels per day currently, according to official figures.

South Sudan’s oil sector is dominated by Asian companies including Malaysia’s Petronas, India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC Videsh) and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).