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Total SA Finally to Start Drilling on Block B in Sudan

06-29-2008

Total SA, Africa's third largest oil producer, is planning to start its drilling at a formerly disputed well in Sudan. The London Court granted Total SA block B in 2007 after bitter legal battle with White Nile Ltd.

“They have now set up the base camp and are mobilising facilities,” Southern Sudan’s Energy minister, Mr John Luk, said in an interview last week. A base camp stores drilling and disposal facilities among others and its setup should end speculation that the oil firm would not begin work until after the end of the interim period of the peace agreement which is 2011.

Actual drilling work on the 67,000 square-kilometre well is, however, still months away. “This is the rainy season in places like Upper Nile and Jonglei; there’s the usual flooding,” Mr Luk said. “Once the money is put together and the budget is complete, it will take another few months, up to October,” he added.

“As you are aware, there was an American company, Marathon, which pulled out,” Mr Luk said. “So what we are doing now is to complete the consortium.”