Total could sue UK White Nile over Sudan operations

Sept 27, 2005 (JOHANNESBURG) — French Total SA (TOT) is considering legal action against London-listed oil minnow White Nile (WNL.LN) over an oil block in the south of Sudan, a senior executive said Tuesday.

Total’s President of Exploration and Production, Christophe de Margerie said the company wasn’t in talks with White Nile.

“We don’t talk to these people,” he said on the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress here, adding the company could sue White Nile over the dispute.

The late John Garang, leader of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement, signed a peace agreement in January that ended 21 years of civil war between South Sudan’s Christian and animist rebels and Sudan’s Muslim-dominated government.

A month later, White Nile finalized a deal with the government-in-formation of South Sudan, which awarded it a 60% stake in Block Ba, a 67,000-square-kilometer block that is part of a larger area claimed by French major Total SA (TOT), Marathon Oil (MRO) and the foreign arm of Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPT.YY).

The remaining 40% is held by Nile Petroleum Corp., the southern government’s national oil company.

De Margerie told reporters: “South Sudan isn’t a state,” an opinion that suggests it might form the basis of any legal challenge against the AIM-listed oil company.

In July, Total hired a U.K. lawyer to look at the legal claim of White Nile and reportedly hired lawyers in Sudan as well.

(Dow Jones/ST)