Oil firms wary despite South Sudan's peace deal

Juba is seeking new partners after the government abandoned Total negotiations

A tentative peace agreement in South Sudan amid plans to repair infrastructure and beef-up security will go some way towards helping the country reach ambitious oil production targets. But it'll take more than words to get the industry back on side, as talks with Total over exploration and development are halted. Oil production has plummeted since South Sudan's independence from Sudan in 2011. Prior to that their combined output was around 480,000 barrels a day. South Sudan had the lion's share of around 350,000 b/d from proved reserves of about 3.5bn barrels. But output has since dwindled to below 130,000 b/d, as a long-running conflict between warring factions in the newly created state f