British White Nile to drill three Sudan oil wells in 2007
Oct 30, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — British oil exploration firm White Nile says it will drill three oil wells in Sudan’s south in 2007 and a court dispute with France’s Total SA over rights to the field poses no risk to operations.
In an interview with Reuters, Chief Operating Officer Philip Ward downplayed a London court ruling in May that White Nile had to submit documents to Total relating to their deal.
“Personally I don’t think it’s a risk at all — we are still operating here, the government of southern Sudan is fully supportive,” Ward said.
“What people don’t realise is that they (Total) are actually taking the government of southern Sudan to court,” he said.
A January 2005 peace deal ended Africa’s longest civil war between the north’s Islamist government and the mainly Christian and animist southern rebels, but divisions over the south’s oil wealth remain despite the accord.
The White Nile-Total dispute is one of the largest thorns in the side of the 2005 agreement. More than 90 percent of Sudan’s around 330,000 barrels per day of crude are from oilfields in the south.
White Nile was awarded oil block Ba, around 67,000 square kilometres, by the former southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in August 2004.
Ba was a part of the larger Block B the rights to which were granted to Total by Khartoum in 1983.
Total renewed the deal with the northern government in December 2004. But after the 2005 accord, the SPLA formed most of the southern autonomous government and a joint petroleum commission based in Khartoum.
But the commission is not functioning and White Nile has completed seismic surveys in the Padak area north of Bor and says it will commence drilling within six months.
“We do anticipate to commence drilling within 6 months,” said Ward. “Under our drilling programme we are looking at drilling at least three wells next year.”
VOTE
Total’s case in London, where White Nile is listed, could take 10-20 years to resolve, Ward said.
But Total does not have long to resolve the dispute. The north-south peace deal allows southerners to vote to secede or remain unified with the north by 2011.
Most southerners want secession acording to polls by U.S. organisations, which would mean the sovereign southern government would retain full control over all its oil.
Khartoum has kept a firm grip on oil by building two refineries in the north and the pipeline to its only port.
Land-locked southern Sudan is in negotiations with Kenya to build its own pipeline to the port of Lamu and a refinery in the south, removing all dependence on the north.
Ward said he hoped to be pumping oil within 2 years from the block which he said contained 5 billion barrels of reserves.
He added the southern government had subdivided the oil blocks, while Khartoum still used the old maps. Other blocks were up for sale, he added.
But while U.S. sanctions on Sudan prevent U.S. companies coming in, other firms have been slow to act, more wary of the risks involved in operations in the war-ravaged south.
Continued tribal clashes, expensive demining operations, lack of any infrastructure or locally produced raw materials, and a nearby swamp area the size of France, the Sudd, protected by international environmental laws, have deterred others.
But White Nile, whose operations are protected by 120 SPLA soldiers, has absolute confidence in their venture.
“We have identified a number of prospects which based on the seismic interpretations look very very encouraging to us,” said Ward from his offices in the southern capital Juba.
(Reuters)