White Nile celebrates first commercial lifting of crude oil

Aug 23, 2006 (MUGLAD) — White Nile (5B) Petroleum Operating Company Ltd (WNPOC), the operator of Block 5A, celebrates the first commercial lifting of crude oil produced from the Block’s Thar Jath field in the south of Sudan.

About 400,000 barrels of crude oil was loaded into an oil tanker at the Bashayer Marine Terminal here for delivery to a long-term contract buyer.

The Thar Jath field in the Muglad Basin began producing in late June 2006. Current production rate stands at 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) and is anticipated to increase to 50,000 bpd by the end of this year. By the middle of 2007, WNPOC expects production to rise to 70,000 bpd.

The crude oil from the field is evacuated through a 172-km pipeline which links at Heglig to the existing 1,542-km pipeline system that goes to Port Sudan. The Thar Jath crude is categorized as sweet heavy oil (API 22o) with low gas oil ratio and low pour point of 9oC.

The development of the field brought together the skill and expertise of multi-national companies from various parts of the world, working together with their Sudanese counterparts. The implementation of the project had also created many job opportunities for the locals and the establishment of many service providers to support the construction of the project’s infrastructure and related facilities.

WNPOC operates Block 5A on behalf of all the partners of the Block’s Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement, namely PETRONAS Carigali Overseas Sdn. Bhd. (67.875%), ONGC Videsh Ltd (24.125 %) and Sudapet (8.%).

Apart from Block 5A, WNPOC also operates two other blocks in Sudan, namely Block 5B and Block 8.

(RIGZONE)