Glencore embroiled in South Sudan oil-export row

An oil deal struck between South Sudan’s state-owned producer, Nilepet, and international commodities broker Glencore is at the centre of an internal struggle for control of the fledgling nation’s exports

On 9 July, the day South Sudan declared independence, Nilepet and Glencore sealed a joint-venture agreement establishing Petronile International. At the time, Glencore and South Sudan’s energy ministry said the venture would market a portion of South Sudan’s 375,000 barrels a day of crude output. Today, however, South Sudan’s director-general of petroleum, Arkangelo Okwang Oler – a signatory to the joint-venture agreement – told reporters: “We have not mandated Glencore to market our oil. They [Glencore] are not mandated to sell the crude of the south.” The dispute appears to centre on the sale of volumes of royalty oil, rather than the equity production Nilepet holds through its stakes in c