The White Nile Company Set to Strike it Rich in Sudan - signs joint oil venture
/White Nile, the Aim-listed oil
company where share dealings were suspended last week, said yesterday
it had clinched a deal to explore for oil in the Sudan. Phil Edmonds,
one of the company's main backers and a former England cricketer, said:
"What we have put out to the market, you can take verbatim. We have
signed a joint venture with the government of South Sudan and the newly
formed state petroleum company." After two decades of civil war, the
north and south of Sudan remain divided over the nation's oil reserves.
White Nile claims that its deal with the soon-to-be-formed government
of South Sudan (formerly the Sudanese People's Liberation Front) for
exploration rights to a 26,000-square mile block in the south of the
country will hold. But the Sudanese government in Khartoum said
yesterday that it alone had the power to grant oil concessions. "The
energy and mining ministry is the only body authorised to grant oil
exploration contracts in the Sudan and we have not done so [for White
Nile]," said a government spokesman. Mr Edmonds said: "What the
comprehensive peace agreement said is that all agreements signed prior
to January 9 and after June 2004 will be honoured." [more] and [more]
- Sudan to double its oil refining capacity [more]
