Sudan project will help Talisman boost cash flow - Financial Post, November 6
By Ian McKinnon
CALGARY - Higher petroleum production, partially due to its
controversial oil project in Sudan, will allow Talisman Energy Inc. to
generate cash flow of $1.5-billion next year while capital spending is
predicted to hit almost $1.2-billion.
Jim Buckee, president and chief executive officer, said the company
expects to produce more than 200,000 barrels of oil per day in
2000 and about one billion cubic feet of gas per day.
More than half of the gas will come from Canada.
About $528-million will be poured into Western Canada next year,
$384-million will go to the United Kingdom and $92-million will be
spent in Sudan, where Talisman has a 25% interest in a project now
pumping 175,000 barrels of oil per day.
In a conference call with reporters and analysts, Mr. Buckee spend
much of his time explaining and defending the firm's involvement in
the African country, racked for 16 years by a ferocious civil war.
Mr. Buckee dismissed many media reports on conditions in Sudan
as distorted and said the company has built roads, dug wells and
helped orphanages to improve the plight of citizens in one of the
poorest countries in the world.
"If a good, ethical company such as us, where people try to do the
right thing, pulls out, we don't see how that helps anybody. It is
much better for us to be there rather than not," he said.
Madeleine Albright, the U.S. Secretary of State, last month
slammed Talisman for its investment in Sudan.
Mr. Buckee said he has no idea why Ms. Albright specifically
named his company, but he added Talisman has not tried to talk to
State Department about its involvement in the Greater Nile Project.
The development that has made the producer a target for harsh
criticism by church groups and human rights activists.
The possibility of sanctions by the Canadian government was
minimized as "vanishingly small" by Mr. Buckee. He said Ottawa is
unlikely to act unilaterally and there is little chance of a United
Nations resolution against Sudan since China, which has a veto as a
permanent member of the Security Council, has a 40% interest in
the project. "It is a minority faction, I think, that is trying to stop the project." |
