News Article by Reuters posted on November 22, 2001 at 14:12:15: EST (-5 GMT)
Austria's OMV eyes Talisman's Sudan assets-source
By Barbara Lewis
LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Austrian oil and gas group OMV is preparing a bid for Canadian oil producer Talisman Energy Inc's assets in Sudan, a source close to the deal said on Thursday.
Talisman has been under severe pressure to sell its 25-percent interest in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co., a stake estimated to be worth about C$1 billion ($635 million), because human rights groups say that oil money is fuelling an 18-year civil war in Sudan.
"I know that OMV are preparing a bid. They have decided to look into it. Now of course they are looking into the details," said the source, who declined to be named.
An OMV spokesman said the Vienna-based company, which already has a stake in another concession in Sudan, would neither confirm nor deny that it might be preparing a bid for the Talisman assets. "We don't comment on these kinds of rumours," the spokesman said.
The source said OMV was expected to make a decision on whether to bid by January.
Talisman chief executive Jim Buckee said last month that there has been much interest in the lucrative stake from Middle East investors and Asian governments.
But a spokesman for the Canadian firm said on Thursday he would not comment on whether OMV had shown any interest.
"As we've said before, we have received offers, and all our assets are for sale," the spokesman said.
Apart from Talisman, the other partners in the project are China National Petroleum Corp., Malaysian state oil company Petronas and Sudan's Sudapet.
Talisman, which also operates in Canada, the North Sea and Indonesia, has been the target of sharp criticism from some church and human rights groups, as well as from the U.S. government, for its presence in Sudan.
This summer, Talisman acquired Lundin's assets in Malaysia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and the North Sea for $365 million, leaving a restructured Lundin with interests in two Sudanese oil concessions and a 10-percent interest in Russian oil producer Khanty Mansiysk Oil Corp.
EXIT OPTIONS
Analysts said at the time that the deal gave Talisman more options for exiting the controversial project in Sudan, where it began operating in 1998.
Critics have charged that Sudan's Islamist government is using the revenues from the oil project to fund its war against rebels in the southern part of the African country.
Talisman's Chief Executive Jim Buckee has often said he believes Talisman's presence in Sudan has done more good than harm in a country in desperate need of development. The company has set up schools and hospitals and said it is working to persuade the government to improve its human rights record.
However, non-governmental organisations, U.S. politicians and even United Nations agencies have said the oil production is not improving conditions in the impoverished country.
The U.S. Congress had threatened to pass legislation banning any firm operating in Sudan from being listed on a U.S. stock exchange, but it put the plans on ice in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in Vienna and Jeffrey Jones in Calgary) |
