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Story by Reuters<\/p>\n
China National Petroleum Company, a main oil investor in South Sudan, is evacuating oil workers to the capital, Juba, amid continued fighting in the world’s newest country, a company official and state media said on Friday.<\/p>\n
State news agency Xinhua said CNPC planned to fly out 32 workers.<\/p>\n
“We are arranging the orderly evacuation of our workers, but the affected oilfield was not operated by CNPC,” said a CNPC media official, without commenting on whether the company’s oil production was affected.<\/p>\n
Xinhua said an oilfield in the northern part of South Sudan, operated by a consortium of Indian, Malaysian and South Sudanese companies, was caught up in unrest on Thursday that killed 14 South Sudanese oil workers.<\/p>\n
China’s Foreign Ministry said that the embassy there would help evacuate Chinese nationals.<\/p>\n
“The embassy will continue to urge the government of South Sudan to take measures to protect the safety of Chinese workers and organisations,” ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing.<\/p>\n
China has expressed concern about the unrest and urged a swift return to peace.<\/p>\n
CNPC is major shareholder in two oil consortia that operate in South Sudan – Petrodar, which also counts Malaysian state oil firm Petronas as a partner, and the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC). India’s ONGC Videsh also operates oilfields, and France’s Total has exploration acreage in country.<\/p>\n
South Sudan, a nation the size of France, has the third-largest reserves in Sub-Saharan Africa after Angola and Nigeria, according to BP.<\/p>\n
Oil production, which had been about 245,000 barrels per day, supplies the government with most of its revenues.<\/p>\n
The conflict in South Sudan has killed hundreds and deepened ethnic divisions in the two-year-old nation. South Sudanese government troops battled to regain control of a flashpoint town and sent forces to quell fighting in a vital oil producing area on Thursday, the fifth day of the conflict.<\/p>\n
A United Nations official reported on Thursday that about 200 oil workers who sought refuge at a U.N. base in Unity State, a South Sudanese oil-producing region bordering Sudan, were expected to be evacuated by their employers, without naming the companies involved.<\/p>\n
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