South African oil firm says “no plans for Sudan”

The South African oil parastatal Soekor has issued a statement saying that, contrary to reports in some leading South African newspapers, the company is not about to enter into any agreement with the Sudanese government that would allow it to conduct oil prospecting in the southern parts of that country. “Reports to this effect are inaccurate,” said Acting Chief Executive Kevin Stallbom. To put the record straight, Stallbom said Soekor shared the concerns of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) “that an insensitive pursuit of oil interests in the Sudan might contribute to the escalation of the civil war in that country”. The SACBC said in a press release on 20 July that it was “gravely concerned” that Soekor was in the advanced stages of negotiating expansion activities in Sudan. “We are convinced that oil is at once a major cause of the war, and a means used by Khartoum to increase its military capacity,” said Cardinal Wilfred Napier, the president of SACBC. He called on South African Mineral and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka “to intervene to stop this overt support for a party to the Sudan conflict that is seriously alleged to have committed serious violations of human rights”. South Africa’s Department of Foreign Affairs told IRIN on Monday that it had briefed Soekor on the political and the economic situation, as was normal procedure in sensitive situations like that in Sudan, but could not dictate to companies on where to do business.