The Ministry of Petroleum has revealed that it has completed the construction of its geological data centre in the country.
The centre, which will be used for storing hydrocarbons, minerals and petroleum resource information, will be the first-ever facility since the country gained independence in 2011.
Speaking to journalists during the visit to the facility on Friday, the Undersecretary at the Ministry of Petroleum, Awow Daniel Chuang said the base will help the ministry of petroleum and that of mining ease their work.
“This data centre is very important for the ministry of petroleum and also the ministry of mining because this data centre is meant to house all the geological data of South Sudan,” he said.
Awow further said the centre, which took a year to complete, will be inaugurated very soon.
“Our visit today is actually to see the final status of the building and as you have seen is already completed and we have also started to furnish some of the offices,” he added
He disclosed that the petroleum ministry has also procured three aeroplanes to be used for geological mapping of petroleum locations.
“We in the Ministry of Petroleum have also started to purchase an aircraft that will be doing the mapping of the data of South Sudan,” he stated.
Mayik Kornelio Koriom, the General Manager of Nationals for Engineering and Logistics Solutions, the company that constructed the structure said the facility cost nearly four million dollars.
“We are the company that has been contracted to build this facility and it cost around 3.7$ million us dollars,” Koriom said.
The geological statistics facility is located on the Juba-Yei Road opposite UNMISS.
According to Awow, the geographical mapping aircraft is currently registered in Uganda because South Sudan is not eligible at the moment to carry out the process.
He said foreign pilots will also be brought to train South Sudanese before the country assumes full control and operation of the setup.