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Gold/Mining/Energy : TLM.TSE Talisman Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tomas who wrote (871)	5/3/2000 11:52:00 PM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1713

Talisman AGM: Shareholders To Be Asked To Focus On Results, Not Sudan Financial Post, May 3 CALGARY - Jim Buckee, president and chief executive of Talisman Energy Inc., will urge shareholders today to focus on his company's results, including a 5,000% increase in first-quarter profit, rather than protesters expected to invade its annual meeting. "We are a very effective, profitable oil company," Mr. Buckee said. "But we also want to make the point we are taking our obligations seriously in Sudan." Police and Talisman are taking security precautions in anticipation of acts of civil disobedience from groups opposed to the oil firm's involvement in the Sudan, where a civil war has raged for 17 years. Among the protesters will be a Boston-based anti-slavery group that is threatening Talisman shareholders with a class action lawsuit unless Talisman pulls out of the East African country. "Increasingly, documentation by human rights groups is going to make the case against Talisman even easier," said Jesse Sage, associate director of the American Anti-Slavery Group. "The result is they (Talisman) have a difficult situation on their hands; certainly a very costly legal battle." The group has accused Talisman of aiding genocide and slave raids in Sudan and is participating in a divestment campaign against the Calgary firm's stock in the United States. Mr. Buckee said Talisman continues to be committed to its Sudanese operations. He said Talisman has received expressions of interest to purchase its 25% stake in the Greater Nile Oil Project, which in the first quarter contributed 42,000 barrels a day of oil production. But, he could not be more specific about the overtures as they did not include numbers or whether it would consider a sale. The assets have been the object of some speculation involving a three-way deal in which Talisman would sell Sudan at a large profit to a third party, likely a company operating in the region, and use the proceeds to buy Gulf Canada Resources Ltd., whose stock has been rallying in recent days. When asked whether Talisman is looking at Gulf, Mr. Buckee replied: "We always look at everything and there are some areas that we fit but there are some areas that we don't and they have an awful lot of debt." Talisman is cash-rich as a result of higher volumes and commodity prices which propelled its net income 50 times to $206.2-million in the first quarter from $4-million, and its cash flow to $571.4-million from $185.6-million. Production increased to 409,000 barrels of oil equivalent daily, up 41% from 291,000 last year.