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Gold/Mining/Energy : Lundin Oil (LOILY, LOILB Sweden) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tomas who wrote (1184)	7/9/1999 7:33:00 PM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

US Oil Companies Request Travel to Libya By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Two U.S. oil companies are seeking permission to travel to Libya to survey assets they were forced to leave behind because of U.S. economic sanctions, the Treasury Department said Friday. Treasury spokeswoman Beth Weaver said the requests were pending before the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which must decide on travel permits because of a law passed by Congress in 1985 to punish Libya for its support of international terrorism. Weaver refused to provide the names of the companies involved or say when Treasury might rule on the two requests. The applications have raised concerns among relatives of the victims of the bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Scotland in 1988. They worry it could be one more step toward normalization of relations with the government of Moammar Gadhafi. Rosemary Wolfe, whose 20-year-old stepdaughter was one of the 270 people killed in the Pan Am bombing, said approval of the oil companies' travel applications would ''send the wrong signal.'' ''Why do this now? It is another step in telling Gadhafi 'Don't worry. Down the road we will be lifting sanctions,''' said Ms. Wolfe, of Alexandria, Va., who is president of Justice for Pan Am 103. The United Nations in April suspended its seven-year restrictions on trade with Libya after Tripoli agreed to hand over two of it's citizens suspected of blowing up the Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, for trial by a Scottish court in the Netherlands next year. American oil companies forced out of Libya in 1986 after Congress passed the U.S. sanctions law have also expressed an interest in resuming operations in Libya. ''We are in constant dialogue with the State Department about what is appropriate,'' said Sondra Fowler, a spokeswoman for Conoco in Houston. ''As soon as the government gives us the go-ahead, we would very much like to get reconnected with our assets.'' She said that since leaving Libya 13 years ago, Conoco has had to forgo production and sale of 300 million barrels of oil worth $5 billion. Conoco was one of three American oil companies that were part of a consortium with the Libyan National Oil Co. The others were Marathon Oil and Amerada Hess. Joe Pyner, a spokesman for Marathon in Houston, said, ''We are interested in pursuing our interests in Libya. We are hopeful that the lifting of the U.N. sanctions will lead to suspension of the U.S. unilateral sanctions so that we can pursue our interests there.'' Neither Ms. Fowler nor Pyner would discuss whether their companies had petitioned for the travel permits. Ms. Fowler said Conoco wanted to keep the nature of its discussions with U.S. government officials confidential. Britain this week announced it was restoring normal relations with Libya after Tripoli accepted responsibility for the 1984 shooting death of a British policewoman outside the Libyan embassy in London. British officials announced they were sending a trade delegation to Libya to see if the newly restored diplomatic relations will lead to more business for British firms. dailynews.yahoo.com