Talisman Energy To Announce New Core Area [Malaysia?!]
"Buckee would not comment about negotiating a property swap with Lundin Oil"
By Dina O'Meara
CALGARY, June 20 (Dow Jones) - Talisman Energy Ltd., (X.TLM) the Canadian oil producer embroiled in controversy over its operations in Sudan, said Tuesday it will be announcing a new acquisition this week in what could be a pre-emptive move to clean house in Africa.
Jim Buckee, Talisman president and chief executive, said he will be announcing an acquisition in a "politically acceptable country" Thursday that could allow the company to branch away from the war-torn nation.
"What we've always wanted to do is get a new area of potential growth before we'd consider Sudan," Buckee said at the oil and gas investment symposium. "And I think the thing that we're going to announce gives us that latitude."
Talisman, one of Canada's largest oil and gas producers, faces being banned from trading on the U.S. stock exchange if a proposed Sudan Peace Act receives Senate and presidential approval.
The company owns a 25% interest in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co. which produces a total of 200,000 barrels of oil a day in Sudan. Analysts valued Talisman's oil assets there at C$1 billion to C$1.5 billion.
Talisman has received increasing international pressure to stop its operations in Sudan. International aid groups and rebels in the country's 18-year civil war say oil revenues are funding government-led human rights violations in the conflict.
But Buckee has maintained the Canadian company's presence in Sudan has helped the country's people by providing humanitarian aid, hospitals and schools, as well as a voice to report human rights violations with.
The pressure to push us out merely hands the property and the oil production to others, Buckee said. "In the absence of pressure, we would have been expanding our presence in Sudan."
China, Malaysia, Sweden and France also have oil operations in Sudan.
When questioned by reporters Tuesday, Buckee would not comment about negotiating a property swap with Swedish Lundin Oil Corporation, which has operations in Sudan and properties in Malaysia - an area Talisman has previously expressed interest in.
The corporation is already involved in Indonesia, with assets producing about 154 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2000.
Malaysia offers the appeal of having available proven discoveries that need to be developed, and is analogous to the North Sea five years ago, Buckee told reporters.
More than a third of Talisman's oil production, or approximately 294 million barrels of oil equivalent, is from the North Sea. |
