Talisman's Sudan oil project NOT attacked
CALGARY, May 5 (Reuters) - A $1.4-billion oil project being developed in Sudan by an international consortium was not a target of rebel attacks publicized on Sudanese radio on Wednesday, the head of the Canadian company in the group said.
Sudanese armed forces spokesman Lieutenant-General Mohammed Osman Yassin, in a statement read on state radio, said the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army had attacked oil installations in the south and east of the African nation.
One of the attacks reportedly took place at Ler in Unity State in the south, although the incident may have been as much as three weeks ago and was not near the consortium's project area, said Jim Buckee, chief executive of Talisman Energy Inc.
"That's not us," Buckee told Reuters. Calgary-based Talisman has a 25-percent stake in the development.
The SPLA said on Tuesday that oil wells operated by Talisman and its Chinese, Malaysian and Sudanese partners were legitimate military targets since profits would help to finance the government's war effort.
A civil war pitting Islamist government forces against the mostly southern-based rebels has raged since 1983.
The rebel group said on Tuesday the government in the capital Khartoum admitted its share of the profits would go toward the manufacture of tanks and missiles.
About 100 Talisman employees are currently working in Sudan at the Greater Nile Oil Project, located 730 km (450 miles) southwest of Khartoum.
The project includes three exploration and two development blocks covering 12 million acres, as well as a pipeline to the Red Sea and oil terminal.
Production, slated to rise to 150,000 barrels of oil a day, is to start later this year.
Talisman's partners include China National Petroleum Corp., Malaysia state oil company Petronas and Sudan's Sudapet.
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