KEY POINTS
- Oranto Petroleum held Block B3 since 2017 but never drilled a single exploration well.
- South Sudan’s review found Oranto failed on seismic surveys, drilling targets, and financial obligations.
- Block B3 is now open for new applications as South Sudan seeks credible operators.
South Sudan’s Ministry of Petroleum has pulled the plug on Oranto Petroleum’s Block B3 exploration license, ending a nine-year arrangement that produced no drilling, no completed seismic surveys and no meaningful progress.
The decision, announced April 30, followed a review of Oranto’s performance over the six-year contractual period. The ministry found the company had not met obligations including required seismic surveys and drilling commitments. The Nigerian firm, controlled by billionaire Arthur Eze, secured the 24,000-square-kilometer block in 2017 with a pledge to invest $500 million. Nine years later, not one exploration well had been drilled. Oranto did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
What the review found
The government’s assessment was direct. Oranto failed to fulfill its financial obligations to the government and related project commitments under the EPSA framework. The company also missed the seismic survey and drilling targets it had committed to at the time of award.
Block B3 carries real potential. South Sudan holds proven reserves estimated in the billions of barrels, yet large portions of the country remain unexplored due to decades of conflict and limited infrastructure. The block was meant to help change that. Instead, it sat idle while the operating environment, marked by security risks, damaged infrastructure and export pipelines routed through Sudan, provided cover for inaction.
The losses are now accumulating in a pattern that African petroleum ministries are beginning to reference. Senegal acted first. Equatorial Guinea followed. South Sudan has now joined that list. In September 2025, Senegal revoked an Atlas-Oranto offshore license, citing the absence of financial guarantees and limited activity levels.
Block B3 is now open
Oil Price reports that the ministry has opened Block B3 to new applications and welcomes interest from qualified international and regional oil and gas companies committed to timely exploration, compliance with contractual obligations, and long-term partnerships.
The oil sector is one of South Sudan’s main sources of public revenue. Against that backdrop, authorities are seeking to ensure that license holders have both the technical and financial capacity to carry out their exploration programs. After a civil war that collapsed output and deterred investment, the government needs operators who will actually drill. Opening Block B3 to new investors could generate renewed interest in an area that remains largely underexplored. The geology has not changed. The commitment bar will be higher.
