Total vows to win Sudan rights battle

FRENCH oil giant Total believes it will triumph in its increasingly bitter dispute with speculative oil firm White Nile over exploration rights in Sudan.

Total says it is studying its legal options if White Nile continues to explore in what it regards as its own block, but is also talking to 'senior officials' in the provisional government in south Sudan and is 'optimistic' an agreement can be reached.

A Total spokesman said the talks, which have been going on since the end of January, are progressing well.

'We are sure that we will be able to clarify this situation together [with the South Sudanese administration],' he said, adding that Total was studying 'all options', including legal action, for resolving the standoff. 'We maintain that our rights are valid on block B, so of course we disagree with White Nile's position,' he said.

The spat arose after the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), the force behind south Sudan's provisional ruling authority, awarded the controversial Aim stock rights to a 67,000 sq km block within a 118,000 sq km exploration area awarded to Total under a 1980 production-sharing contract.

Paris-based Total, headed by Thierry Desmarest, re-signed an updated version of the agreement with the more widely recognised government of north Sudan in December.

Under a contract between SPLM foreign commissioner Costello Garang Ring and excricketer Phil Edmonds and his business partner Andrew Groves, White Nile holds a 60% share in block Ba - which Total claims is an invalid sub-set of its block B.

The same agreement gives the south's newly formed national oil company a 50% stake in White Nile, which declined to discuss Total's claim.

Even though it has not drilled any wells or carried out any seismic surveys, White Nile claims the block may contain five billion barrels of oil. But Total describes the area as 'almost unexplored' and says it is not in a position to comment on the block's prospects.

Said the spokesman: 'Total has a clear and valid contract on Block B. We agreed this with the existing Sudanese authorities. It is fully in line with the comprehensive peace agreement between the north and the south signed at the start of 2005. We are confident of the validity of our agreement.'

Evil Knievil bets on French

LEGENDARY short-seller Simon Cawkwell last week called on the Financial Services Authority to launch a formal inquiry into White Nile. In a letter to the regulator, Cawkwell, also known as Evil Knievil, ridiculed valuations on the firm, writing: 'Either Total is right or White Nile is right. My money is on Total.'

He dismissed valuations of the firm as 'utterly absurd' and said there was more chance of the Queen taking elocution lessons from John Prescott than of White Nile delivering capital gains for purchasers at this level.

Cawkwell has sold short 300,000 shares in White Nile at prices ranging from 15p to 115p.