By Ajong Mbapndah L
From academia and the legal profession to the commanding heights of South Sudan’s petroleum industry, Dr. Santino Ayuel Longar has travelled an unconventional path into one of the country’s most consequential public offices. Appointed Undersecretary of Petroleum in March 2026, he has arrived with an ambitious agenda: raise production, improve recovery from ageing fields, attract investment, advance domestic refining, modernise the Ministry and ensure that petroleum delivers greater value to South Sudan and its people.
Dr. Santino Ayuel Longar took office at a demanding moment for South Sudan’s petroleum industry. Production needs to rise, mature fields require greater attention, investment must be mobilised and the country continues to import refined petroleum products despite sitting on substantial crude reserves. For a nation where oil remains central to government revenues and foreign exchange, the stakes could hardly be higher.
President Salva Kiir Mayardit appointed Longar Undersecretary of Petroleum on March 27, 2026, replacing Dr. Chol Deng T. Abel under Republican Decree No. 108/2026. The appointment placed him at the administrative and technical heart of the Ministry, helping translate government policy into action and providing continuity between political leadership, regulators, operators and investors.
Longar arrived with a background that sets him apart from the conventional petroleum technocrat. Before assuming his current responsibilities, he was better known as a lawyer, academic, author and public-policy scholar. His work has touched some of South Sudan’s most difficult questions, including constitutional governance, federalism, human rights, reconciliation, conflict and the relationship between citizens and the state.
He holds a Ph.D. in Law from Queen’s University in Canada. His doctoral research examined the debate between universal human rights and cultural relativism in contemporary Africa. He is also a barrister, solicitor and notary public and a member of the Law Society of Ontario in Canada. His research interests have ranged from international human rights and humanitarian law to public international law, investment law, administrative law and constitutional law.
Back home, Longar became an Assistant Professor and Director of the Law Development Center at the University of Juba’s School of Law. Teaching and scholarship placed him close to the debate over the institutions South Sudan needs as a young state, while his research examined federalism, democratic development, transitional justice and the difficult balance between peace, accountability and reconciliation.
In 2024, University of Wales Press published his book, International Human Rights in Post-Colonial Africa: Universality in Perspective. The work explores the application of universal human-rights principles within Africa’s diverse cultural and political settings. It also offers a window into the intellectual background of a man now charged with responsibilities in a sector where questions of law, investment, accountability, environmental protection and community rights are inseparable from the economics of extracting oil.
Longar is from the Ruweng Administrative Area, one of South Sudan’s important oil-producing regions. That connection gives the petroleum debate a dimension that goes beyond professional responsibility. For communities living around producing fields, oil is experienced through jobs and local business opportunities, but also through questions about land, infrastructure, environmental protection and whether resource wealth produces visible improvements in everyday life.
It is an issue Longar has consistently associated with the future of the industry. Higher production alone cannot settle the debate over the value of petroleum to South Sudan. Producing communities want roads, schools, healthcare, clean water, employment and protection from environmental damage. They also want greater participation by South Sudanese in an industry operating on their doorstep.
At the national level, however, production remains the immediate challenge. South Sudan’s mature fields face natural decline, putting pressure on operators and government to recover more oil from existing assets while pursuing new drilling and investment.
In June, Longar said some fields operated by the Greater Pioneer Operating Company were declining at approximately 25 percent annually. The figure illustrates the scale of the challenge: before South Sudan can achieve substantial growth, operators must first compensate for losses from ageing fields.
There have nevertheless been encouraging signs. By early June, production from GPOC fields had reportedly risen from roughly 44,000 barrels per day to around 60,000 barrels per day, its highest level since operations began in 2005. Longar subsequently put national crude production at approximately 174,000 barrels per day, pointing to residual-oil recovery studies, drilling, field development and infrastructure improvements as contributors to the gains.
His ambition is to go considerably further. Longar has outlined plans to increase oil production by as much as 50 percent, supported by better recovery techniques, operational improvements, drilling and fresh investment. It is a formidable target for fields that have been producing for years, but it reflects the urgency with which the government views the sector.
Every additional barrel matters. Petroleum remains one of South Sudan’s principal sources of government revenue and foreign exchange, meaning production setbacks quickly travel through the wider economy. Sustained gains could provide badly needed fiscal space while creating room for greater investment in infrastructure and development.
Yet Longar’s agenda is not confined to pumping more crude. One of its most consequential elements is domestic refining.
South Sudan remains dependent on imported refined petroleum products, an expensive contradiction for an oil-producing country. The government wants to change that by processing more of its crude at home, reducing imports and keeping a larger share of the petroleum value chain within the national economy.
By August 2026, Longar was discussing plans for two refinery developments with a proposed combined capacity of 60,000 barrels per day. One proposal involving Superior Process Engineering Company envisages an initial 30,000-barrel-per-day development at Tharjiath in Koch County, Unity State, with further capacity planned.
If successfully financed and completed, domestic refining could do more than reduce the fuel import bill. It could support technical employment, stimulate businesses along the petroleum value chain, improve energy security and potentially create opportunities to supply refined products to neighbouring markets.
Longar knows that ambition must be matched by capital. South Sudan needs investors capable of bringing financing, technology and expertise into upstream development, infrastructure, storage, refining and distribution.
On July 8, 2026, he signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of the government with Bianchi Gold Trading Investment Company covering possible investments across oil, gas and petroleum refining. The proposed cooperation includes infrastructure, storage and distribution facilities, technical studies and capacity building for South Sudanese personnel.
At the signing, Longar stressed the importance of credible strategic investors in accelerating economic growth and strengthening energy security. The message is important for a country seeking to reposition its petroleum industry internationally: South Sudan has resources and opportunities, but turning them into commercially viable projects requires capital, technology, predictable rules and confidence.
There is another part of the transformation taking shape closer to home. Longar has made institutional modernisation one of his priorities at the Ministry itself.
In June, he led senior officials on an inspection of the Ministry’s new Twin Towers and Data Center headquarters along the Juba-Yei Road as construction and installation approached completion. Longar described the facility as part of an effort to provide a modern working environment, strengthen institutional capacity and improve service delivery.
The building is significant beyond its architecture. A petroleum industry carrying such weight in the national economy requires strong data systems, competent professionals, effective administration and the institutional confidence to deal with sophisticated international companies and investors.
Here, Longar’s academic career intersects directly with his new responsibilities. He spent years writing about institutions, governance and the difficulties facing fragile states. Public office now gives him an opportunity to confront some of those challenges from inside government.
The transition also changes the measure of success. Academic arguments can be judged on the strength of their ideas. At the Ministry of Petroleum, the verdict will come from what gets done.
For Longar, that means whether production rises and remains sustainable, whether investment agreements mature into actual projects, whether refineries move from proposals to construction, whether ageing fields become more productive and whether the Ministry itself becomes more efficient.
There will also be scrutiny over how the industry treats the environment and the communities living around production areas. South Sudan has wrestled for years with concerns about the environmental consequences of petroleum operations. Stronger production cannot come at the expense of responsible environmental management.
The Ministry states that environmental protection around petroleum facilities throughout their life cycle forms part of its mandate and that resources should be managed according to environmentally, socially and economically sustainable principles. Longar’s legal and human-rights background gives him a particularly interesting vantage point from which to turn those commitments into practice.
For communities in Ruweng and other producing areas, the measure will be practical. Do petroleum operations create meaningful employment? Are local companies participating? Are communities seeing better infrastructure and services? Are environmental concerns addressed promptly and transparently? Is enough being done to prepare young South Sudanese for technical and managerial roles in the industry?
These questions sit alongside the formidable commercial challenges confronting the sector. Mature fields need investment simply to offset decline. Refinery projects require substantial financing. Infrastructure gaps remain. Investors need confidence in the operating environment, while government must secure agreements that protect the national interest.
The early months of Longar’s tenure have therefore been busy: pursuing production recovery, promoting enhanced oil recovery, engaging potential investors, advancing refinery ambitions and overseeing institutional improvements within the Ministry.
His background makes the assignment particularly compelling. Longar has examined government through the eyes of a lawyer, studied its responsibilities as a scholar, trained young lawyers as an academic and written about the institutional difficulties confronting his country. He must now help make one of South Sudan’s most important institutions deliver.
Oil has shaped South Sudan’s economy for years, but the bigger question has always been what the country can ultimately make of its petroleum wealth.
Increasing production by 50 percent would be an important achievement. Establishing viable domestic refining would change the economics of the industry. Improving recovery could extend the productive life of existing fields. Stronger institutions could improve oversight and investor confidence. Greater participation by South Sudanese and visible benefits for producing communities would give those achievements broader national meaning.
That is the test now confronting Santino Ayuel Longar. His tenure will not ultimately be remembered for targets announced or agreements signed, but for how much of that ambition becomes reality.
The scholar who spent years examining the relationship between institutions, rights and development is now helping manage the resource at the heart of South Sudan’s economy. If higher production can be matched by investment, refining, stronger institutions, environmental responsibility and tangible benefits for communities, Longar will have helped move the country’s petroleum story beyond the familiar question of how much oil South Sudan produces to the far more important question of what that oil does for South Sudan.
