Juba — South Sudan said it boosted security at oil installations and will source electricity from neighbouring Sudan to resume output at two fields in efforts to restore production to levels achieved before the country descended into civil war. The government was also in talks with oil companies, including Total of France and Oriental Energy Resources of Nigeria, to begin exploration in Block B, the country’s largest untapped deposit, Petroleum minister Ezekiel Lul Gatkuoth said in an interview on Monday in the capital, Juba. Other companies, including London-based Tullow Oil and Exxon Mobil, were "seriously interested" in investing in the country, he said. Oil production in South Sudan plunged by at least a third to about 130,000 barrels a day since conflict erupted in the East African nation in December 2013. The decline, combined with a drop in prices, has devastated the economy, with annual inflation accelerating to almost 500% and GDP forecast by the IMF to contract 6.1% this y...
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