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

To: Tomas who wrote (1621)	5/3/2000 11:56:00 PM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

Bombed Sudan oil pipeline active again - Talisman KHARTOUM, May 3 (Reuters) - A Sudanese crude oil pipeline blown up earlier this week would resume operations on Wednesday, an official of the consortium that owns the pipeline said. Ralph Capeling, General Manager of the Pipeline Division of the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), told Reuters on Tuesday evening that repair work on the 1,500 km (940 mile) pipeline was almost complete. "It did not have much impact, it is more of an inconvenience rather than anything else," he said. "We placed a temporary valves system to shut our flow." Capeling, the Sudan representative of Canada's Talisman Energy Inc which has a 25 percent stake in the pipeline, said some of the spilled oil would be retrieved. Sudan has said the Beja Congress, part of the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA), carried out Monday's attack. The government blamed ethnic Beja for an attack on the pipeline in January. NDA military forces carried out an earlier attack two months after the pipeline came on line in August. Capeling said Talisman, Canada's biggest oil and gas producer which has come under fire from human rights for its involvement in Sudan, would look into the needs of the Beja people who live by the pipeline in northeast Sudan. "However, Sudan is a large country, with many problems, we cannot solve all these problems. We (Talisman) are concentrating in the area where we have production rights," he said. The oil is pumped from the Heglig fields in south Sudan where rebels have been battling the northern Islamist government for the past 17 years. Besides Talisman, the consortium includes the state oil companies of China, Malaysia and Sudan. Capeling said the pipeline's current flow of 185,000 barrels per day (bpd) is expected to reach 220,000 bpd in 2002, adding that Talisman plans to increase the number of pumps from six to 11, raising daily capacity to at least 450,000 bpd from 150,000. Talisman's Sudan output contributed to a huge jump in first-quarter earnings announced on Tuesday of $139.3 million, up more than 5,000 percent from year-earlier earnings. Sudan previously spent about $360 million a year on oil imports, swallowing almost all its export earnings. It looks to the oil to reverse economic decline.

To: Tomas who wrote (1621)	5/4/2000 1:09:00 AM
From: Tomas	Respond to of 2742

Talisman Won't Quit Sudan CALGARY, May 3 (energy24.com) - Talisman Energy chief executive Jim Buckee says criticism of his company's Sudanese oil project appears to be fading, making him "less inclined" to abandon the venture than he was several months ago. He said Talisman wants to retain its 25 per cent stake in the Greater Nile Oil Project, regardless of expected criticism in several pending human rights reports. Many analysts have claimed Talisman is trading at a discount because of the Sudanese controversy, but Buckee said general investor disinterest in oil and gas stocks could also be a factor. "Although we are trading at abysmal multiples (to cash flow), we are not alone," he said. "It's hard to distinguish an industry effect from a specific Sudan effect." He said Talisman hopes measures it is taking to soften Sudan concerns, including community development spending and enacting a code of ethics, will satisfy some critics. Meanwhile, pipeline sabotage this week temporarily halted the flow of oil from the Greater Nile to the Red Sea'the third such attack since late last summer. A US government advisory panel this week urged the Clinton Administration to ban Talisman from raising money in the US so long as it does business in Sudan. "We are looking for the government to play a more assertive role in making sure that companies that are benefiting from the Sudanese oil effort are not able to benefit from US markets," said David Saperstein, chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. Talisman's common and preferred shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. A company spokesman said limiting Talisman's access to US capital would do nothing to end Sudan's civil war. "We support the Canadian government view that constructive engagement in Sudan is probably the best chance for peace," he said.