South Sudan expects to reach peak oil output of 350,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) by mid-2019 as production ramps up at fields that were off line due to violence, South Sudan’s minister of petroleum said on Sept. 5.

South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 when output peaked at 350,000 bbl/d, but two years later plunged into civil war.

“We expect to reach the plateau again by the middle of next year,” Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth told Reuters at an oil and power conference in Cape Town.

Last week South Sudan resumed pumping 20,000 bbl/d of crude from the Toma South oil field, where production had been suspended since 2013.

Production at five previously suspended oil fields is expected to reach 80,000 bbl/d after maintenance work is completed by the end of the year, officials said during a site visit.

Gatkuoth said the government, which stopped negotiations with France’s Total (NYSE: TOT) over development of blocks B1 and B2, is expected to choose a new partner by the end of December.

“Many companies are engaging us and I will make a decision before the end of this year,” Gatkuoth said.

Onshore