South Sudan has announced that construction of its oil pipeline has been scheduled to begin in 2013
South Sudan's Ministry of Petroleum and Mining claimed that the country signed an inter-governmental agreement (IGA) with Ethiopia and Djibouti in September 2012 to create a mechanism for the construction of an oil pipeline through the countries.
Petroleum and mining minister Stephen Dhieu Dau revealed that South Sudan also has plans to sign a similar IGA with Kenya, which would allow the construction of a pipeline to the Kenyan port of Lamu.
Ministry officials explained that a Japanese firm has completed feasibility studies on the Lamu route, adding that the Japanese and American companies have expressed interest to jointly fund the project.
According to the ministry’s director for pipelines, Gatwech Thich, German company ILF has been contracted to carry out a feasibility study on the South Sudan-Ethiopia-Djibouti route, which will begin in February 2013. The study will take between six and nine months.
