Agriterra Ld Regulatory News (AGTA)

17 Jun 2005 12:43

White Nile Limited17 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 SeisGeophysical Ltd ('Terra Seis'), a wholly owned subsidiary of Terra SeisInternational, has been awarded the contract to conduct an extensive seismicevaluation programme of White Nile's 65,000 sq km Block Ba oil licence area inSouth Sudan. Following a competitive tender process, Calgary based Terra Seis has beencommissioned to acquire 2,000 km of high resolution geophysical data focussed ona high definition seismic programme. The 10 month project, which will startimmediately, will primarily focus on the areas within Block Ba thought to behighly 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 concessionarea. Canadian registered Terra Seis, founded in 1999 by Kevin Plintz, specialises inimplementing and managing seismic programmes across the world. It has workedextensively in Africa, the Middle East, Central and South America and mostrecently in Tanzania, Nigeria, Trinidad and Guatemala, carrying out seismicprogrammes for a broad range of international and national oil companies acrossa spread of terrains. James Jost, Managing Director of International Operationsfor Terra Seis will head the programme in South Sudan. White Nile is alsostudying the possibility of running further gravity surveys in parallel to theseismic programme. White Nile Chairman Phil Edmonds said: "As we said in the Admission Document, itis our intention to undertake an intensive exploration work programme with theaim of establishing new discoveries of oil and gas in South Sudan and thusgenerating revenues as soon as possible. To this end it was important that wecommissioned an extensive seismic survey to develop Block Ba as soon aspracticable. We have signed with Terrra Seis as its team offered us the mostcomplete package ranging from their experience and enthusiasm to theirreputation within the industry and their social policy. Importantly, Terra Seishave the personnel and equipment to commence work immediately which willhopefully result in drill targets being identified at the earliest opportunity." Terra Group of Companies Chairman Kevin Plintz said: "We are extremely excitedto be working with White Nile in South Sudan. We believe that we have theexperience and industry expertise to successfully carry out the seismicprogramme over the Block Ba licence area and to assist the Company inidentifying potential drill targets as quickly as possible. The main areas ofactivity will be focussed on sectors of Block Ba which have been identified asbeing the extensions of the production fairways of the Melut and Muglad Basins.We are already organising the transportation of teams and equipment and expectthe data acquisition process to be completed by June 2006. Importantly we haveworked with a cross section of oil companies that have maintained our servicesdue 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 BedfordRow, London WC1R 4LR. Contacts: Phil Edmonds White Nile LtdTel: 0845 108 6060 Hugo de Salis St Brides Media & Finance LtdTel: 020 7242 4477 Notes: * The 'New Government of South Sudan' refers to the Civil Authority ofNew Sudan, which is currently in the process of being constituted as theGovernment of Southern Sudan. They control 50% of White Nile following the issueof 155,000,000 to Nile Petroleum Corp, the South Sudanese National oil companyfor an interest in a petroleum concession, Block Ba. This was confirmed at anEGM on 16th June 2005. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange