A bitter two-year dispute between Total and Phil Edmonds, the former England cricketer, over the rights to a lucrative oilfield in southern Sudan could be resolved within the month.

Sources said last night that officials from South Sudan were close to an agreement with the Khartoum Government in the North that will involve White Nile, the company floated by Mr Edmonds, working alongside the French energy giant.

Fresh talks between the North and South to resolve the row began last week.

Shares in White Nile had plunged 25 per cent at one point yesterday after a report that officials in the South had ordered an investigation into the the company’s contract. However, the shares recovered all the losses by the end of the day to close at 110p after White Nile said that it was confident that negotiations between the authorities would lead to a “positive outcome”.

White Nile signed an agreement with South Sudan to explore for oil across a huge tract of land in 2005. It was immediately challenged by Total, which was awarded a licence by Khartoum covering most of the same area in 1980. It left the country when civil war broke out five years later and much of the field now lies in South Sudan.

White Nile began drilling last month but yesterday said that it had been forced to suspend operations until the end of the rainy season in Sudan later in the year. Analysts have always claimed that Total would force White Nile out, given its financial muscle. Mr Edmonds refused to comment on the possible outcome, but he told The Times: “We just have to sit tight and wait for the negotiations between the North and the South to conclude. We feel that White Nile has proved itself eminently capable of being able to explore and develop an oilfield.”

White Nile has been surrounded by controversy since it came to the stock market. The shares were suspended for three months while the London Stock Exchange investigated the exploration deal with the southern Sudanese. The national oil company in South Sudan owns a 47 per cent stake in the group and Mr Edmonds has insisted that his venture shows how countries can retain some of the wealth generated from their natural resources.

Journey into Africa

— 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

— Market capitalisation yesterday: £362 million

— Market capitalisation in March: £460 million

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