New south Sudan oil block to be marked out
September 19, 2007 (JUBA) — The south Sudan government said on Wednesday that it plans to offer a new oil concession, to be called Block E, that will be formally delineated by a north-south oil commission.
The south’s Industry, Energy and Mining Minister Albino Akol Akol said several oil companies are interested in the concession but the National Petroleum Commission (NPC) will have to approve the block first.
“The block has to be designated and then companies can apply,” Akol said.
The NPC is one of many coordination bodies mandated by a 2005 north-south peace deal that ended over two decades of Sudanese civil war, partly fuelled by the discovery of large oil reserves in the south.
Block E stretches over three states and runs next to other concessions already contracted out. All three states will have to be involved in talks before any companies are signed on, Akol said.
“It is stipulated in the (peace) agreement that states have to choose people to negotiate with applying companies,” he said.
The NPC will meet within the next three months, and Akol said it was likely that Block E will be put on the table.
He said that privately owned Spanish H Oil, which began negotiations for the block with southern rebels before the peace deal was signed, remained interested. The south Sudan Vice President had previously said H Oil had signed a memorandum of understanding with southern government officials.
“But H Oil is only one of the applicants, they attempted to sign an agreement but they cannot do it without people in the area agreeing and the NPC,” Akol said.
Akol said other companies looking to the block include a British firm and Supiri, a southern Sudanese company based in Canada. He added that other companies had expressed interest through Khartoum.
Most of the oil rich areas of the south are tied up in contracts signed with Khartoum which are not re-negotiable, but there are areas close to the Ethiopian border that are still free as well as the land earmarked for Block E, Akol said.
(Reuters)