White Nile starts seismic tests in South Sudan
May 10, 2006 (LONDON) — White Nile, the Aim-listed oil explorer run by ex-cricketer Phil Edmonds andbusiness partner Andrew Groves, has started gathering seismic data after many months of delays at its controversial project in Sudan.
The company had been conducting seismic tests on an oilfield in the oil-rich south of Sudan known as Block Ba for more than a month, said Mr Groves, chief executive, yesterday.
It plans to drill its first well by the end of this year and could be pumping oil in 2011, he added.
White Nile will be carrying out seismic tests to map out Block Ba’s oil reservoirs until November, at a cost of $16m (£8.6m). It plans to drill its first exploration well before the end of the year, with a second well to follow in early 2007.
Questions about White Nile’s operations in the Sudan have been raised after it failed to make significant progress in the last year.
It has also faced claims from Total of France that it owns the rights to the site, having conducted seismic tests in the 1980s.
The French oil group still claims to have the drilling rights to the block, citing an agreement with the government in the north.
But last year White Nile struck a deal with the new government in the south, which declared itself a breakaway republic from the north of the country following the end of a bitter civil war.
The new government, which owns 48 per cent of White Nile through a vehicle called Nile Petroleum, has said it does not recognise past agreements made by the Khartoum government.
Mr Groves yesterday said the seismic work on Block Ba had been delayed after the dynamite needed for the tests went missing on its sea journey from the US.
The current testing is focused on the western part of Block Ba, which White Nile’s geologists think could be an extension of the Jonglei Basin, where ONGC of India, Petronas of Malaysia and CNOOC of China are currently producing oil.
White Nile is also spending $2m on clearing land mines and other explosives, left by both sides in Sudan’s conflict, from the area.
Shares in White Nile took off at the end of April, rising from about 100p to 180p, in spite of a statement from the company saying it knew of no reason for the rise.
They closed down 3p at 176p, valuing the company at about £558m.
White Nile listed on Aim as a cash shell in February last year and its shares rose from 10p to 138p in the first week of trading.
(Financial Times)