Globalscot to help North Sea oil firms make splash abroad
Lawyer and Middle East business expert Hugh Fraser has been inducted into a global networking initiative set up to help Scottish firms break international markets.
Sudan
Oranto to invest $500m in vast Sudanese oil field
South Sudan’s government said it granted Oranto Petroleum International Ltd. a license to explore for oil in a block covering three states in the East African nation that may contain “vast” deposits of oil.
Timing of Trump travel ban ‘unfortunate’ for Sudan as US lifts sanctions
The U.S. removal of sanctions on Sudan unlocks the potential for the government to tap its rich mineral and agriculture resources. Now the African state needs to carry out the large-scale reforms required to attract investors.
Lundin’s chairman and chief exec investigated by Sudanese prosecutors
Lundin Petroleum’s chairman and chief executive are reportedly suspected of “serious crimes” against international law, according to reports.
Cargo plane destined for Paloch oil field crashes killing 25 people
A cargo plane has crashed near the international airport in the South Sudanese capital of Juba, killing at least 23 people. Some of the victims were children, according to an Associated Press reporter near the scene, who said wreckage was strewn over the east side of the River Nile.
South Sudan fighting escalates in oil states before peace talks
Fighting between rebels and government forces in South Sudan’s oil-producing states intensified, the army said before the two sides meet on Monday for peace talks. Rebels attacked non-producing oil fields north of the Unity state capital, Bentiu, on Friday and were repulsed, army spokesman Colonel Philip Aguer said by phone from the capital, Juba. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army is “in full control of Unity oilfields and has captured a number of equipment including tanks and ammunitions,” Aguer said.
South Sudan oil field becomes battleground as economy reels
After 17 months of civil war spanning a swathe of South Sudan bigger than Syria, President Salva Kiir’s survival may hinge on the fate of a single oil field. Paloch in Upper Nile state, the only region still pumping crude in a nation with sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest reserves, has re-emerged as the rebels’ prime target. While the insurgents probably couldn’t find a market for its oil, the facilities’ capture or damage could spell disaster for a government that’s battling surging inflation and a slumping currency, and which depends on crude for about 90 percent of its income, according to analysts including Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School in Massachusetts.
South Sudan denies rebels have taken control of oil fields
South Sudan’s government denied claims by rebel forces that they’ve seized oil fields in the north of the country after clashes in the region. Lony T. Ngungdeng, a spokesman for insurgents loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar, said on Tuesday that the fighters took control of facilities in Upper Nile state, which are still producing crude. Fighting is taking place around Malakal, the state capital, and Akoka, Information Minister Michael Makuei Lueth said by phone Wednesday from South Sudan.