Oil groups start drilling in Sudan swamp

Source: Reuters

JUBA, Sudan, March 18 - Operators have started drilling for oil in an area of environmentally sensitive swamplands in Southern Sudan, An oil consortium said on Tuesday.

The group, made up of Sweden's Lundin , Malaysia's Petronas , ONGC Videsh of India and Sudan's state-owned Sudapet, started exploratory work in Sudan's oil-rich heartland on Tuesday, said a spokesman.

"The drilling of Wan March 1 well marks a milestone for the first well to be drilled in the Nile swamp area," said the spokesman for the White Nile Petroleum Operating Company that operates the plot for the four partners.

The area, in Sudan's concession Block 5B, falls in the remote Jonglei region.

The partners said they were taking extra precautions on the site, adding that all waste would be taken away to highland areas for treatment and burial.

The south's Industry and Mining Minister John Luk said he had witnessed the start of the drilling operation. "I was there to satisfy myself about the environmental impact," he said. "But it's a continual monitoring process."

The consortium started exploration in the region after a 2005 peace deal ended more than two decades of north-south civil war. But the operators only got access to 5B earlier this year after months of north-south negotiations over the contested block.

WNPOC is a joint venture between Sudapet and Petronas.