White Nile exploration license Illegal – Sudanese mininster

Dec 14, 2006 (ABUJA) — Sudan’s oil minister said Thursday that White Nile Ltd’s (WNL.LN) oil exploration license in the South of the country is “illegal.”

The statement underpins the fact that the central government’s position remains unchanged a year and a half after an autonomous authority in the South awarded the oil company a license on an area previously controlled by Total SA (TOT).

The oil ministry rejected the deal when it was announced in February 2005 but White Nile claimed Sudan’s laws would ultimately allow an end to the deadlock.

“They have to go out,” Awad Ahmed al-Jaz said about the small British oil company. He was speaking to Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

He said the French oil major was legally entitled to explore the area attributed to White Nile by the Southern-Sudanese authorities.

“They have the license since 1980,” he said. The license with the central government was renewed at the end of 2004.

(Dow Jones)