Moldova’s Ascom resumes drilling third oil well after two failures

September 12, 2008 (JUBA) – The Moldavian Ascom has started drilling a third oil well after its failure to find oil in two sites in Jonglei state, a southern Sudan minister said today.

After a two year row with the Malaysian Petronas over the rights of the concession, Ascom obtained a portion of block 5B, covering more than 20,000 square km, where it begun drilling in January 2008.

“They have launched their third well,” the south’s minister for energy and mining John Luk said in a statement to Southern Sudan TV on Saturday.

The other part of the block is operated by the consortium WNPOC (White Nile Petroleum Operating Company) led by Petronas and including India’s ONGC Videsh , Sudan’s state-owned Sudapet and Nilepet and Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum .

Last May drilling operations conducted by the Swedish oil explorer, Lundin Petroleum AB in the well Wan Machar-1 didn’t record oil shows in part of Block b5 located in the Southern Muglad Basin.

The well (Wan Machar) is the second of a four wells to be drilled in Block 5B during 2008. The Swedish firm had also failed to fin oil in the first well drilled in March 2008.

The third oil operator in Jonglei state, Total, has to start its oil drilling operations soon. But the French firm said security conditions in the area could hinder the resumption of its activities after more than twenty years.

(ST)