RE: Chairman "It's a game changer!"2 Aug 2023 11:27
chief executive officer mandhir singh caught up with ************* for an exclusive interview to discuss how the conflict in sudan is affecting the oil industry, probability of securing an oil block, the cost of the assets, and when they expect to sign a deal.
q1: mandhir, how is the current conflict in sudan affecting your efforts to get things done? how is the oil industry been affected there?
a1: the first thing is the conflict isn’t as bad as everyone thinks. we’ve actually got people on the ground in khartoum and they’ve just reported that the fighting is just centralised in the city centre area.
we see the conflict more as a speed bump than a roadblock. unfortunately, in the last two years, there’s been about two coups, and this is a way of life out there.
in regard to the actual oil industry, as far as we understand it, the oil industry has not been significantly affected at all. the oil fields are the equivalent in distance from glasgow to london, they’re way down in the south and usually in these situation, both sides leave the oil industry alone because they need the revenues for their army’s and whatnot.
so, it looks bad on the news but it’s a way of life in these countries and the oil industry is not affected. it’s a slight setback for us because we can’t get out there and do face-to-face negotiations but things have significantly settled down, i think it’s been about 3 weeks since sudan was mentioned by the bbc.
hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, it’ll settle down enough for me to fly back out and negotiate a deal.
q2: what’s the probability of wildcat petroleum securing an oil block in sudan?
a2: the probability i would say is extremely high. we’ve actually opened an office in khartoum so that gives an indication of how we feel that we can get a block. also, we’ve got an excellent team out there and they know how to get stuff done in difficult situations and we’ve got excellent relationships with all the people that matter.
in february, i was a guest of honour at the 25th celebrations for the state oil company sudapet, and i know the oil minister, i know all the people that matter. basically, getting oil deals done in these countries comes down to relationships between people and we’ve got excellent relationships.
we signed an mou last year over four blocks, all of these blocks are producing and hopefully this year, once it’s safe to travel out there, we will actually turn the mou in production sharing agreements.
Sign In
Follow the stocks
