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

To: Tomas who wrote (1219)	8/16/1999 12:43:00 PM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

Libya: US Oil Company To Make Its Return - Middle East Economic Digest, Aug.13 The Clinton administration has issued a licence allowing one US oil company to travel to Libya to inspect assets frozen in the country since the imposition of sanctions in 1986. Industry sources suggest that Occidental Oil & Gas is the recipient of the licence. However, company officials were not available to comment as MEED went to press. At the time of the pull-out, Occidental had the greatest volume of operations among US oil companies in Libya, with a 49 per cent holding in two exploration concessions and a 19 per cent interest in the Sirte basin, It also had a 25 per cent stake in licences in the Jebel Akhdar and Sebha regions. A statement issued in Washington on 20 July said: "The US Treasury Department of Foreign Asset Control granted a licence to one US oil company to travel to Libya for the purpose of gathering information and to carry out an inspection on its property." The licence allows a single visit to be made by technical staff and one executive of the company. The visit must be completed before 31 December 1999. "I am not able to reveal the identity of the company concerned, but as far as I am aware this is the first such licence since the imposition of the sanctions," says a Treasury Department spokesman. The four other US oil companies operating in Libya when sanctions were imposed - Conoco, Marathon, Amerada Hess and Grace Petroleum - also received an invitation from Libya to undertake visits to the country during a meeting in Geneva in April. Agreement to consider applications for licences was granted by the US government following the invitation, It is understood that Marathon, Conoco and Amerada Hess, as industry partners in Libya, have made a joint licence application. The US has maintained a unilateral sanctions policy since the 6 April suspension of UN sanctions against Libya. "Issuing a licence is not a reversal of the sanctions policy," says the Treasury Department spokesman. "In order to bring about a lifting of the sanctions, Libya must take concrete steps to renounce its links to terrorism."