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

To: Tomas who wrote (1559)	3/23/2000 2:02:00 PM
From: Greywolf	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2742

Commences US$620 Million Phase 2 Development of PM3-CAA in Malaysia VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 23, 2000-- Lundin Oil AB (NASDAQ:LOILY - news; the ``Company') is pleased to announce the appointment of the key management roles for the implementation of the Phase 2 development within its wholly owned subsidiary, Lundin Malaysia Limited, operator of PM3 - CAA. Mr. Edward H. Webb has been appointed General Manager. Mr. Webb has extensive management experience in the resource sector and has recently been involved with two other Lundin projects, namely, the PNG Gas Pipeline Project in Australia and the Tenke Mining Project in Democratic Republic of Congo. Mr. Stewart Mushet, Deputy General Manager, has 25 years experience in the engineering and management of projects in the oil and gas and petrochemical industries. Recently he has been responsible for the preparation of the Development Plan for the Phase 2 project. Other key appointments are Mr. Allan Scott as Project Director with more than 30 years experience in the petrochemical and oil and gas industries involving major offshore-related fabrication facilities and large oil and gas projects. Mr. Paul Atkinson is Operations Manager with 24 years experience in production, well operations, reservoir engineering and formations evaluation. Mr. Atkinson has worked for Lundin Oil for six years and previously spent twelve years with BP. The Lundin Malaysia Limited management team are about to commence the basic engineering with the engagement of a contractor to provide a set of detailed drawings and specifications for the design of the facilities by the end of August 2000. In addition detailed specifications will be developed for a new build Floating Storage and Offloading Vessel (FSO) that would receive, store and offload the oil production. This will allow the tendering of the hull-by mid-year. The implementation program is on schedule for delivery of the facilities to meet first gas by the third quarter of 2003. The facilities to be installed in Phase 2, of this world class development, are shown in the attached schematic. Lundin Oil AB has a 41.44 percent working interest (held through Lundin Malaysia Limited - 26.44 percent and Lundin Malaysia AB - 15.00 percent) and is the Operator of Block PM-3 CAA. The remaining interest is held by Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd with 46.06 percent and PetroVietnam Exploration and Production with 12.5 percent.

To: Tomas who wrote (1559)	3/24/2000 9:34:00 PM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

"There has been a marked increase in interest in Libya among US oil companies" U.S. Team To Assess If Libya Safe For Americans Chicago Tribune, March 22 By John Diamond, Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- In the first sign of a thaw in U.S.-Libyan relations, the State Department dispatched a four-member team to Tripoli to determine whether the "terrorist state" is now safe for Americans to visit. The Clinton administration billed its move as strictly preliminary. But the language used by administration officials described Libya as moving sharply away from its past as a suspected state sponsor of terrorism. The mission to Libya comes six weeks before the trial in the Netherlands of two Libyan suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground. "The purpose of this visit is to assess safety conditions for American citizens in Libya," State Department spokesman James Rubin said Tuesday. "This consular visit is unrelated to the trial of the suspects of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103." However, it appears that one of Washington's long-time "rogue state" enemies may be about to drop off the list. The State Department has banned the use of U.S. passports for travel to Libya since 1981, when the two countries broke off diplomatic relations. The State Department has renewed that ban each year, most recently in November when Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made the determination that the hold on U.S. travel to Libya should remain in effect. A senior State Department official who briefed reporters Tuesday said Albright renewed the ban because State Department officials had not had a chance to assess the situation in Libya. Now, with the sudden surge in oil prices, there has been a marked increase in interest in Libya among U.S. oil companies hoping to return to one of the Mideast's main oil-producing nations. They have been barred under unilateral U.S. sanctions imposed on Libya in 1986 amid concern that Libya was welcoming international terrorists and participating in terrorist actions that targeted Americans. In pushing for an opening with Libya, the Clinton administration may also be responding to pressure from Capitol Hill, truck drivers and motorists for government to do something about rising gasoline prices. The State Department official acknowledged that U.S. oil companies have expressed interest in returning to Libya and that there has been a rush of business interests from Europe returning there, especially after Britain last year re-established diplomatic ties. According to figures from the late 1990s, Libya ranked seventh among the 11 OPEC members in petroleum exports and proven crude oil reserves. The official said, however, the assessment trip had nothing to do with business interests but with the needs of "the traveling public." The official could point to no sudden surge of interest in travel to Libya and could provide no estimate of the number of Americans living in Libya. The decision to send the four-member team to Libya on Wednesday for a whirlwind, 26-hour safety inspection tour of the Tripoli airport, tourist hotels and other sites likely to be visited by Americans, came despite a plea from families of the Pan Am 103 bombing who asked that any policy shift wait until after the trial. "It's absolutely appalling, but I'm not surprised," said Susan Cohen of Cape May Court House, N.J. Cohen lost her 20-year-old daughter, Theodora, in the downing of Flight 103. She accuses the Clinton administration of bending under the pressure of U.S. oil companies seeking to get back into business in Libya. But the senior State Department official credited the regime of Moammar Gadhafi "with ending its support for terrorism. ... There are positive indications." These include: Since last spring Libya has expelled the Abu Nidal organization and all its members living in Libya. Abu Nidal is considered one of the most sophisticated and dangerous international terrorist organizations. Libya has imposed new restrictions preventing suspected terrorists from entering a country that was once a haven for Islamist organizations seeking desert training posts for their paramilitary activities. Libya shifted its support from Palestinian opposition groups who oppose peace progress with Israel in favor of the Palestinian Authority and Chairman Yasser Arafat. And last year Libya surrendered the two suspects in the Pan Am bombing. Libya has acknowledged no direct involvement in the bombing, and that question may become part of the trial, which will be held before a Scottish court on Dutch territory. These developments won't necessarily mean Libya is dropped immediately from the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism. "It's more complicated than that," the senior official said. But the United States could establish diplomatic ties even before Libya's removal from list. The United States maintains embassies in such countries; indeed, President Clinton will visit one later this week when he meets Syrian President Hafez Assad. Before considering a complete normalization of relations with Libya, Washington is insisting on key concessions: payment of appropriate compensation to the victims of the Pan Am 103 bombing; cooperation with the investigation and trial; acceptance of responsibility if its officials are proven to have been involved in the bombing; and an end to support of terrorism. Britain, which re-established diplomatic ties with Libya last year, gained just those concessions during negotiations over normalization of relations. In the British case, the focus was not only on Pan Am 103 but on the 1984 slaying of a British police officer in London outside the Libyan Embassy. "They apologized, paid compensation and agreed to cooperate with the investigation," a British official said. "Once these obstacles were lifted, we were able in July last year to establish diplomatic relations." chicagotribune.com

To: Tomas who wrote (1559)	3/28/2000 10:25:00 PM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

French oil services firms target Libya - "before the US returns" By William Emmanuel PARIS, March 28 (Reuters) - Some 30 French oil and gas services companies plan to travel to Tripoli next month in a bid to strengthen their position in the Libyan hydrocarbons market before the United States returns to the country. ``We are trying to get in there quickly. Everyone expects the U.S. administration to change its position (on sanctions against Libya) after the American presidential elections in November,' Jean-Jacques Royant, in charge of international cooperation at the French oil and gas suppliers' council (GEP), told Reuters in an interview. Royant said GEP members would present their products and services at an international fair in Tripoli on April 5-20. They will be accompanied by the French Secretary of State for Industry and Energy, Christian Pierret, who will be the first member of the French government to visit Libya since April 1999, when the United Nations lifted economic sanctions imposed on Libya in 1992 over the bombing of a Pan Am Airliner over Lockerbie in Scotland. The United States, which severed ties with Libya in 1981 and reinforced its economic sanctions after the Lockerbie disaster, has yet to normalise relations with Tripoli. Royant said after eight years of restrictions on foreign investments, the Libyan oil industry was in a parlous state. Production, at 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), was half what it was before 1992, while annual foreign investment had fallen to $500 million in 1999 from $3.0 billion in 1991. INVESTMENTS OF AT LEAST $5 MILLION Libya hoped to raise production to 2.0 million bpd in five years, which meant investing at least $5.0 million over the next two years to renovate its oil infrastructure, he said. Today, Libya's National Oil Corporation produces between 0.8 and 0.9 million bpd while foreign companies produce 0.5 to 0.6 million. Several French oil industry majors, including merger partners TotalFina and Elf Aquitaine , and oil services firm Technip are already present in Libya. According to GEP, Libya has already offered foreign investors 16 new blocks covering 26,000 square kilometres on land and 4,000 km2 offshore, and plans soon to offer further new blocks covering 47,000 km2 on land and 14,000 km2 offshore. Royant said despite the absence of U.S. companies like the world's top oil services firm Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB - news), competition was fierce between European energy firms established in Libya, which include Germany's Veba (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: VEBG.F), Austria's OMV and Agip, a subsidiary of Italy's ENI . But he said French oil sector companies were themselves very competitive. France is the second largest provider of oil products and services after the United States and has supplied Libya with technology developed by the French Petroleum Institute (IFP). biz.yahoo.com

To: Tomas who wrote (1559)	4/3/2000 9:46:00 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

Libya Says Would Welcome Normal Ties With U.S. By Andrew Hammond CAIRO (Reuters) April 2 - A senior Libyan official said on Sunday that his country would welcome normal ties with the United States, long viewed by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as an arch-foe. Ali Triki, Libya's secretary for African unity, told reporters on the sidelines of an Africa-Europe meeting in Cairo that last month's visit to Tripoli by U.S. officials was a welcome step. The delegation, on the first official trip since the United States broke off relations in 1981, had assessed whether Libya was safe for U.S. visitors, now banned from travel there. ``We will continue to have contact and if they (the Americans) are ready to normalize, we are ready, and for the interests of all countries,' Triki said. ``We have expressed that, our leader has expressed that. We welcome the normalization between the two countries.' Gaddafi told Arab News Network television on Thursday that the Americans, who list Libya among countries that sponsor terrorism, had ``returned to their senses' after realizing they were missing chances to do business in Libya. ``There's always a mutual interest between us and any other country, including America, provided that they respect us. We will gain from the relationship with America, of course, because of their economic strength,' the Libyan leader said. ``Of course it was hard fighting America. We didn't want to do it. It was America that started the conflict. That's what happened. But now, with God's guidance, they have returned to their senses. They have realized that they have lost a lot of business opportunities,' he declared. Opportunity For Gaddafi Gaddafi is due to attend the first Africa-Europe summit opening in Cairo on Monday, offering a chance to meet European Union leaders reluctant to invite him to their capitals. EU officials had visited Libya last week to consider whether Tripoli qualified for full membership in the Euro-Mediterranean group that promotes trade, economic ties and development. Earlier this year Libya, which enjoys observer status in some group meetings, accepted conditions such as commitments to human rights, democracy, regional stability and free trade. But it said that Israel and the Palestinian Authority should be excluded until there was a just peace in the Middle East. EU officials said this was unacceptable. A British official ruled out any prospect of a meeting between Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and Gaddafi in Cairo or elsewhere until Libya shifts its position on Israel. The United Nations suspended sanctions on Libya almost a year ago after it handed over for trial in the Netherlands two men indicted for the 1988 bombing of a PanAm airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in which 270 people were killed. Britain, Washington's closest European ally, subsequently restored full diplomatic relations with Tripoli after it agreed to pay compensation for the killing of a British police officer by gunfire from the Libyan mission in London in 1984. dailynews.yahoo.com