Britain’s White Nile suspends south Sudan oil work

May 30, 2007 (JUBA) — British oil company White Nile has suspended operations in south Sudan and is seeking clarification over exploratory rights in the semi-autonomous region, a company official said on Wednesday.

Acuil Malith Bangol, White Nile’s social and political consultant, told Reuters the company had received a letter on May 19 from South Sudan President Salva Kiir requesting it suspend operations.

Asked whether White Nile had then suspended work, Bangol said: “Yes”.

White Nile, which is 50 percent owned by south Sudan’s state petroleum firm Nilepet, started drilling its first well in a disputed 67,000 square km (25,870 sq mile) concession in south Sudan last month.

White Nile said in a statement to the London stock exchange that drilling had been suspended “with the onset of the rainy season” but that it would resume at the beginning of the fourth quarter during the dry season.

The firm also said it had asked the southern government to issue a statement “clarifying the conclusion of the negotiations in Khartoum between themselves and the northern government” over oil exploration rights as soon as possible.

White Nile’s disputed block was part of a larger concession previously assigned to French energy company Total SA by the Khartoum government well before a 2005 peace deal ended over two decades of civil war and gave the south semi-autonomous status.

The former southern rebels who now dominate the southern government divided up Total’s block and assigned part of it to White Nile. Most of Sudan’s oil lies in the landlocked south, although refineries and pipelines are in the north.

White Nile has estimated that it has 3 billion to 5 billion barrels of oil in its block Ba concession, but it will take four years before the oil starts to flow.

Bangol said no explanation was given for the government’s request, but he believes it was made to allow for north-south dicussions over the disputed concessions.

“The two parties were to sit down and discuss the legal status of White Nile and Total,” Bangol said.

A Technical Committee was formed a month ago to resolve difficulties in the peace agreement’s implementation, including resolving disputes over oil concessions and on where to draw the north-south border in the oil-rich Abyei area.

“In principle the two parties have agreed to accommodate everyone,” Bangol said, adding a final decision is yet to be ratified by Kiir and Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

(Reuters)