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White Nile Ltd to Be Back in Block B of Southern Sudan

11-12-2007

White Nile Ltd to acquire 55% stake in Block B of Southern Sudan which was once owned by Marathon Oil. The block was freed up when US major Marathon Oil pulled out because of Washington's sanction on Sudan.

"This company is to take over the 22.5% of the (consortium)," southern Sudanese Legal Affairs Minister Michael Makuei said. "(Its shares) should be 55% owned by White Nile."

White Nile was in dispute with French giant Total over the property right of block B and the case was taken to the British court.

The Sudanese National Petroleum Commission (NPC), which under a 2005 peace deal between northern and southern Sudan has the authority to assign oil deals. The UK company had already begun exploratory work in one section of the concession.

Makuei, speaking to reporters after a meeting between White Nile and southern politicians, including Vice President Riek Machar, said the NPC had asked the south to choose a new company to complete Block B's consortium.

The NPC has the final say on the deal, but Makuei said its consent was a matter of formality. The NPC earlier decided to remove White Nile from Block B and had set up a committee to assess compensation for the company.

Machar said White Nile was an obvious partner for the southern government. "It is an established company ... and it is much easier given that we own half," he said

White Nile board member Edward Lino said that the company has invested around $75 million in the south.

"Of course we are waiting for Total and the rest of the shareholders (in the block's consortium) to agree," said Lino when asked if White Nile would re-start operations.

Members of the southern government pulled out of the central coalition government last month, saying the northern ruling party of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had not implemented key parts of the 2005 peace agreement.

The protracted north-south war - separate from conflict in Sudan's Darfur region - claimed the lives of some two million people, while four million were displaced from their homes.