Phil Edmonds, the former England cricketer, has called the French oil group Total “neo-colonial” as his controversial oil-exploration company, White Nile, prepares to drill its first well in a contested block in South Sudan.

Drilling at the first of three wells planned by the company this year will begin within a month, carried out by Tusk, a South African subcontractor.

An official ceremony hosted by Salva Kirr, the South Sudanese president, will mark the occasion on April 15, with CNN, the BBC and Al-Jazeera expected to beam it around the world.

Mr Edmonds told The Times: “History is being made and we are part of that history.”

The move comes despite a continuing war of words with Total over who owns the rights to explore on a 67,000 sq ft patch of land in South Sudan called “Block Ba”. Total was awarded a licence covering most of the same area in 1980, but left the territory at the onset of civil war five years later.

The block falls in South Sudan, an autonomous region now governed by former members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

The nascent government awarded White Nile the block two years ago after a peace deal with Khartoum in the north and took a 50 per cent stake in the company. Experts said that the disputed block could hold at least a billion barrels of oil.

Total has mounted a huge public-relations counter-attack in recent weeks and said that it would consider giving the South Sudanese a stake if it won back exploration rights.

Mr Edmonds said that the approach was “neocolonial” and typical of Big Oil’s way of dealing with smaller nations.

White Nile, which Mr Edmonds floated two years ago with his business partner Andrew Groves, has helped to rebuild a dyke and roads and spent $1 million (£517,000) clearing landmines at Jalle, where its drilling campaign will begin.

Mr Edmonds said: “White Nile is not just our company, but the government of South Sudan’s company. The people are working with us and are proud of what we are doing.

“They read Jean-François Lasalle [Total’s upstream public affairs vice-president] saying that they are willing to give the South Sudanese a stake and the reaction is one of amused consternation. They say ‘How can they give us back something that is ours?’. For a company like that to come out with such a neocolonial attitude like that is mind-boggling.”

A Total spokesman insisted that its claim would eventually prevail and said that White Nile did not have the technical or financial capability to develop any discoveries.

Total has threatened legal action but ultimately the validity of the contract is likely to rest on Sudan’s National Petroleum Commission, made up of executives from the northern and southern halves of Sudan.

Analysts are convinced that Total will win the day, and claim that the best that White Nile can hope for is a minority stake in the block in the future.

However, Mr Groves counters the criticism by reeling off the money made for investors in other firms floated by himself and Mr Edmonds. He said: “Camec has gone from £500,000 to £660 million and Southern African Resources is being sold by management we brought in for £300 million. White Nile’s market cap has gone from £30 million to £430 million, we’ve shot seismic for a year and brought in a drilling rig when no one said we could. It’s not bad for spivs and charlatans, eh?”

The mining empire

— White Nile Market cap: £460 million Floated on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in February 2004. Shares immediately soared 645 per cent on rumours that it held the rights to a huge exploration block in Sudan. Shares suspended for three months until the deal, revealed six days later, was cleared by the London Stock Exchange

— Central African Mining and Exploration (Camec) Market cap: £660 million The duo’s main vehicle, which joined AIM in 2002. Its portfolio included coal interests in Mozambique, bauxite licences in Mali and a copper and cathode processing facility in the Congo. Last month, the group entered China by acquiring cobalt producer and trading opeator Zhejiang

— African Platinum Market cap: £260 million Floated as Southern African Resources five years ago, it owned the Leeuwkop mine in South Africa, which holds nearly 100 million ounces of platinum group metals. Mr Edmonds and Mr Groves sold down their shares, brought in new directors and the group was renamed African Platinum in 2005. Larger rival Impala last month agreed a near£300 million takeover

— Central African Gold Market cap: £52 million Explorer focused on Mali, but was committed to finding other exploration projects in other parts of Africa. Floated in 2003 and Camec retains a minority stake

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