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Wednesday, 07 January, 2009, 19:40 GMT | more >>

Heady mixture of oil and politics



By Upstream staff 

Oil and politics remain inextricably linked in South Sudan, writes Barry Morgan.

UK explorer White Nile had indicated it wished to shoot more seismic on the Pibor Post basin, 200 kilometres east of Padak, where the company was drilling ahead until last month.

Yet that region is dominated by ethnic Murle who have so far refused to disarm and would definitely interfere with exploration efforts, according to a senior commander in the New Sudan Army.

In Jonglei State, White Nile wants permission to re-enter its current well and reach target depth of 3000 metres in order to evaluate reservoir objectives in the Bentiu and Aradeiba formations.

It then wants to explore two prospects where it believes the Muglad basin extends into its existing Block Ba concession.

However, its writ does not extend beyond the narrow ethnic Bor-Dinka contstituency on which its current probe is located, which constrains potential new areas of operation.

Even the revenue sharing formula has become cause for conflict with the North.

Only portions of the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company’s (GNOPC) Muglad blocks 1, 2 and 4 fall under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement where so-called “Southern” production is shared 50:50 with Khartoum.

The same does not apply to output yielded from sites deemed to be in the North. Militia interference is also taking its toll. It is understood Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA)

General Paulino Matip’s forces have discouraged GNPOC from drilling new wells on the Bentiu field in Block-1 — his home turf — and such pressure is likely to mount.

“If the North was serious about peace they would have applied the 50:50 rule to their own oil as well — this is not a credible vision for the future,” South Sudan Ambassador to Nairobi John Andruga Duku said. “If this is peace we are paying a high price.”

That is also the position of South Sudan President Salva Kiir’s second-in-command Paulino

Matip, an ethnic Nuer, whose 60,000-strong militia make him indispensable to the political integrity of the Southern administration. Matip’s son and key aide

Gabriel Matip told Upstream that his father was not interested in the current 50:50 formula and that Abiye and even the oilfields of South Kordofan should come to the south, “so we should do away with all this nonsense of 50:50 revenue sharing in these areas”.


Friday, 08 June, 2007, 06:57 GMT  | last updated: Friday, 08 June, 2007, 06:57 GMT

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