UNITY STATE STOPPED OIL EXPLORATION IN BLOCK 5B WELL NYAL-1

Gatluak Pech Dak- Juba

3/25/2008

The drilling operations in block 5B was announced by the Lundin Petroleum AB Swedish company last year in December,that the exploration well Nyal-1,located on the western flask of the basin was to be spudded on Thursday 7 February 2008.

The well is located in the “dry land” area of the block where several prospects have been

Identified as a result of the recently acquired 2D Seismic program. This program was started in the Nyoung area in early 2006 to help carry out an intensive survey, which resulted to the discovery of Palual,Nyal,Pathiel,Taiyar and other minor wells.

The 2D Seismic program caused damages in the areas of oil discovery.

The damage includes destruction of crops, huts, natural forest, and creation of further flooding routes. As a result of such damages was historic flooding which hit the county bitterly last year and the water is still up there and has not yet dried up? Next rainy season will find the water there and will further make the flooding catastrophic in the areas where Seismic program was initiated. The causes of these are the opening of river Nile outlets which were closed for a longtime by fiber reefs. The ZPEB [Ziongyany Petroleum exploration bureau Chinese company] which uses ferries and boats to do their surveys may be responsible for the damages caused by the opening of the fiber reefs which previously had slowed the water to the mainland.

After all these mess and mass destructions the operator company which is [WINPOC-2] White Nile Petroleum Company stopped the operation without compensating for the damages made and shifted their programme politically to Wan Machar [Umm Dandalo] in Guit County. Accidental or coincidental, Nyuong people think there is political intention behind the activities of these oil companies. The Nyuong community term this as a political cold war imposed on their community by the Governor of the state for having legitimate candidates for his position. The community leaders condemned the state government for punishing because political differences between the governor and other politicians in the state. The community termed this act as apolitical issue because they were left out when the nine counties were connected with road and when the company started road construction in the Greater Leer area they were told to leave the area. In addition, when the company, [WINPOC-2] management met the commissioner and the community leaders, they complained that there was no oil found in Panyijiar counties which contradicted the 2D Seismic program results that was published by their partnered Lundin Petroleum AB company, that exploration well Nyal-1 with planned depth of 2,100 metres, will target the Upper to lower cretaceous sandstones reservoirs that have proved highly productive in other producing fields in the Muglad basin. The gross unrisked recoverable prospective resources for the Nyal prospect are estimated at 176 millions barrels of oil [mmbo].