White Nile Limited
17 June 2005
17th June 2005
White Nile Limited ('White Nile' or 'the Company')
Awards Seismic Contract for Block Ba in South Sudan
White Nile Ltd, the AIM listed oil & gas exploration company 50% owned by the '
New Government of South Sudan'*, is pleased to announce that Terra Seis
Geophysical Ltd ('Terra Seis'), a wholly owned subsidiary of Terra Seis
International, has been awarded the contract to conduct an extensive seismic
evaluation programme of White Nile's 65,000 sq km Block Ba oil licence area in
South Sudan.
Following a competitive tender process, Calgary based Terra Seis has been
commissioned to acquire 2,000 km of high resolution geophysical data focussed on
a high definition seismic programme. The 10 month project, which will start
immediately, will primarily focus on the areas within Block Ba thought to be
highly prospective i.e. the extensions of the Melut and Muglad Basin areas.
These Basins already have oil production to the north of the Block Ba concession
area.
Canadian registered Terra Seis, founded in 1999 by Kevin Plintz, specialises in
implementing and managing seismic programmes across the world. It has worked
extensively in Africa, the Middle East, Central and South America and most
recently in Tanzania, Nigeria, Trinidad and Guatemala, carrying out seismic
programmes for a broad range of international and national oil companies across
a spread of terrains. James Jost, Managing Director of International Operations
for Terra Seis will head the programme in South Sudan. White Nile is also
studying the possibility of running further gravity surveys in parallel to the
seismic programme.
White Nile Chairman Phil Edmonds said: 'As we said in the Admission Document, it
is our intention to undertake an intensive exploration work programme with the
aim of establishing new discoveries of oil and gas in South Sudan and thus
generating revenues as soon as possible. To this end it was important that we
commissioned an extensive seismic survey to develop Block Ba as soon as
practicable. We have signed with Terrra Seis as its team offered us the most
complete package ranging from their experience and enthusiasm to their
reputation within the industry and their social policy. Importantly, Terra Seis
have the personnel and equipment to commence work immediately which will
hopefully result in drill targets being identified at the earliest opportunity.'
Terra Group of Companies Chairman Kevin Plintz said: 'We are extremely excited
to be working with White Nile in South Sudan. We believe that we have the
experience and industry expertise to successfully carry out the seismic
programme over the Block Ba licence area and to assist the Company in
identifying potential drill targets as quickly as possible. The main areas of
activity will be focussed on sectors of Block Ba which have been identified as
being the extensions of the production fairways of the Melut and Muglad Basins.
We are already organising the transportation of teams and equipment and expect
the data acquisition process to be completed by June 2006. Importantly we have
worked with a cross section of oil companies that have maintained our services
due to the quality of our work as well as our strong social policy.'
* * E N D S * *
Issued on behalf of White Nile Ltd by St Brides Media & Finance Ltd, 46 Bedford
Row, London WC1R 4LR.
Contacts:
Phil Edmonds White Nile Ltd
Tel: 0845 108 6060
Hugo de Salis St Brides Media & Finance Ltd
Tel: 020 7242 4477
Notes: * The 'New Government of South Sudan' refers to the Civil Authority of
New Sudan, which is currently in the process of being constituted as the
Government of Southern Sudan. They control 50% of White Nile following the issue
of 155,000,000 to Nile Petroleum Corp, the South Sudanese National oil company
for an interest in a petroleum concession, Block Ba. This was confirmed at an
EGM on 16th June 2005.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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