Lundin Petroleum may forfeit piece of Sudanese licence – report

August 2, 2007 (STOCKHOLM) — Lundin Petroleum AB and Petronas, may be forced to give up a piece of their Block 5B licence in Sudan, to the south Sudanese government and the Moldavian oil company Ascom to end a long-running dispute and clear the way for drilling, the newspaper Dagens Industri reported.

“We have a 24.5 pct stake and as I see it, we can end up with a little dilution to bring in the south Sudanese government, and Ascom, depending on which type of deal we make with them. But it will have no big impact on our ownership proportion and the important thing is that we can start drilling,” Lundin Petroleum chief executive Ashley Heppenstall said.

Block 5B is south Sudan is one of Lundin Petroleum’s most important assets, and has potential reserves of over 2 bln barrels, of which Lundin’s proportion is 500 mln barrels.

A deal would decrease uncertainty regarding the rights to the oil and clear the way for drilling this year, the newspaper said.

(Thomson Financial)