South Sudan forms oil joint venture with Glencore

JUBA, South Sudan, July 12 (Reuters) - South Sudan has formed a joint venture with Glencore to develop its national oil company and market its oil, the information minister said on Tuesday.

South Sudan became Africa's newest country when it split away from the north on July 9 under a peace deal that ended decades of civil war. Some 2 million people died in the conflict, fought over religion, ethnicity, ideology and oil.

Officials are now eager to bring foreign investment into the new country to develop its economy, which is now almost entirely dependent on oil.

"This joint venture will help the Republic of South Sudan develop its national oil company through skills transfer and training, and be responsible for marketing the crude oil from July 9 onwards," Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin told reporters.

The south produced about-three quarters of the united country's roughly 500,000 barrels per day of oil. (Reporting by Alexander Dziadosz and Jeremy Clarke; Editing by Kevin Liffey)