An oil facility in Unity State | File photo

Trinity Energy Limited oil company has announced plans to construct a $500 million oil refinery in South Sudan.

The refinery which will be located in Paloch, Upper Nile state is expected to serve the East African region with refined petroleum products.

An American firm called Chemex is expected to be complete the construction work in the next three years.

It is also expected to construct petroleum storage facilities at Nesitu at the outskirts of Juba, along the Nimule highway.

“We are already making steady progress towards our refinery project. We have already identified and secured land for the refinery in Paloch,” the firm’s chief executive Robert Mdeza told The East African in an interview.

“We have engaged Chemex of the United States as the project manager for this project.”

The refinery will produce 40,000 barrels per day of refined oil, with the potential of expanding to 200,000 barrels per day.

Trinity Energy company said that the feasibility study and the designs for the proposed refinery have already been concluded with Afreximbank.

Regional banks operating in Juba are also expected to provide financing.

“This will aid in the engineering and design work for the facility,” Mr. Mdeza stated.

The oil company further announced plans to start distribution of refined petroleum products to Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo by road.

South Sudan has the third-largest oil reserves on the continent after Libya and Nigeria, estimated at 3.5 billion barrels, with much of it yet to be explored.

The country is seeking to increase crude oil production to pre-conflict levels of 350,000 barrels per day.

But the current production levels of the crude oil in South Sudan have dropped from 250,000 barrels per day to around 175,000 barrels per day.