DR Congo hands block to Tullow rival
Wire services
The Democratic Republic of Congo has awarded one of two Lake Albert oil
prospecting permits claimed by Ireland's Tullow Oil to a rival consortium
including South Africa's state oil company PetroSA, Congo's oil ministry
said.
Tullow signed production sharing contracts for two promising prospecting
blocks on Lake Albert in 2006.
But the ministry has insisted a contract signed by a deputy minister with
Tullow and its Canadian partner Heritage Oil was invalid because he had no
authority to do so and because it never received presidential approval.
Dieumerci Mutombo, the ministry Cabinet director who signed a statement
published in local newspapers yesterday, told Reuters that rights to only
one of the two blocks had been awarded to the new consortium.
"We withdrew one block. We left them the other, and we asked them to
regularise it. We have already said that the blocks have now been separated,
so there needs to be a new production partnership agreement," he said.
"Our position is that we cannot give the entire lake to a single operator,"
Mutombo said.
The blocks adjoin DR Congo’s border with Uganda, close to three Ugandan oil
prospecting blocks held by Tullow, two of which it also holds jointly with
Heritage.
In its statement, the Hydrocarbons Ministry repeated DR Congo accusations that
Tullow and Heritage personnel had violated the border on Lake Albert with
support from the Ugandan army, causing the deaths of eight Congolese
nationals. Both companies and Uganda have previously denied the charges.
Tensions twice broke out into violence last August and September, in which
several Congolese civilians and a UK oil worker employed by Heritage were
killed in shooting.
"Faced with these threats and violence, the Congolese government owes it
to itself to preserve its hydrocarbon resources and the security of its
people in Ituri Province," the statement said.
As a result, it said a production sharing contract had been signed with a
consortium grouping South African-based Divine Inspiration Group and South
Africa's state oil company PetroSA, along with H Oil.
Divine Inspiration is a little-known South African company.
01 May 2008 04:45 GMT
| last updated:
01 May 2008 10:10 GMT
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