A Sudanese committee has recommended that Total share a disputed oil field with White Nile, the company run by Phil Edmonds, the former England cricketer, the development director.

A compromise has been recommended by a panel of officials from both north and south Sudan. Under the deal, Total would be given 25 per cent of the concession, with White Nile taking 15 per cent. The remainder will be shared between the Government in Khartoum, its national oil company and the oil authority in the south. Sources in Khartoum said that Total had rejected the terms. White Nile refused to comment yesterday.

Total was awarded the rights to the field in 1980 but left Sudan at the onset of civil war five years later. White Nile picked up the rights to the block, which now lies in south Sudan, in 2005.

White Nile, which is half-owned by the state petroleum firm Nilepet, started drilling its first well in its disputed 67,000 sq km (25,870 sq mile) concession last month. Its block was part of a larger concession previously assigned to Total by the Government in Khartoum. White Nile had estimated that it has three billion to five billion barrels of oil in its block Ba concession, but that it would take four years before the oil started to flow.

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