South Sudan shakes up oil rights
The ex-rebel movement which runs southern Sudan has rescinded all oil exploration rights in the territory under its control.
The Sudan People's Liberation Movement said it had reassigned seven "blocks", including a large tranche held by a consortium including France's Total.
Part of Total's holding has already been handed over to small UK firm White Nile, sending its shares soaring.
A January peace deal allotted the SPLM a share of oil profits.
It stipulated that no oil deal reached before the peace agreement came into force on 9 January would be subject to renegotiation.
But SPLM secretary for international co-operation Costello Garang told Reuters that the SPLM had reached its own deals.
Our position is that we have a valid title dating from 1980
Jean-Francois Lassalle, Total
He said they should be protected as well as the ones signed by the government in Khartoum, which the rebels had fought for more than two decades.
"There are seven blocks all in all, and all the fields in the areas under SPLM control have been given away," he told Reuters.
'Valid title'
Total confirmed that the SPLM claimed it had reassigned the blocks.
The 40% of its own block remaining from the White Nile reassignment has gone to a small US firm.
But Total insisted its own rights - agreed with Khartoum in 1980, before the civil war between the mainly Arab north and the Christian south started - remained intact.
It is the operator of a sizable exploration block in southern Sudan, as part of a consortium with US firm Marathon, Kuwait's Kuspec and Sudanese state oil firm Sudapet.
It has yet to explore the area's oil prospects properly, having agreed to stay out of the area while the fighting was going on.
"This seems to be a second version of what happened with White Nile," said Jean-Francois Lassalle, public affairs vice-president for exploration and production.
"Our position is that we have a valid title dating from 1980... we have all the necessary paperwork."
Total has yet to negotiate directly with the SPLM, since it has just one representative in Khartoum and no-one in the southern capital of Rumbek, but is planning to start talking soon.
"There will be contacts made by executives from Paris," Mr Lassalle said.
Meanwhile, trading in White Nile shares have been suspended by the London Stock Exchange, pending publication later this month of a circular outlining the Sudan deal.
- Database Search
- Unpaid Debt A comprehensive overview of the role of the Lundin Consortium in the oil war. ECOS calls upon the Swedish, Austrian and Malaysian governments to investigate whether, as a matter of international law, Lundin, OMV and Petronas 'were complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity by others during the period 1997-2003.’ In response, the Swedish Public Prosecutor for International crimes opened a criminal investigation into ‘links between Sweden and the reported crimes’.
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