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

To: Greywolf who wrote (2354)	5/3/2001 9:11:11 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

Talisman should stay in Sudan The Globe and Mail, May 3 By MATHEW INGRAM It may not do him much good from a public relations standpoint, but if there's one thing Talisman CEO Jim Buckee likes to do, it is to speak his mind. In the case of his company's investment in Sudan, Mr. Buckee is convinced that Talisman is doing far more good by being in the troubled African country than could be achieved by selling its stake, and he has stuck fast to that position despite a non-stop storm of criticism. To Talisman's critics, of course, congratulating Mr. Buckee for his defiance is a bit like praising Stalin for sticking to his guns on the whole communal farm idea, or Saddam Hussein for his commitment to Iraqi independence. These critics — such as Eric Reeves, whose other job is teaching English at a private arts college in Massachussetts — want Talisman to renounce its involvement in Sudan. But how would that help Sudan? It's true that "If we didn't do it, someone even worse would take our place" isn't much of a moral principle. But foreign affairs of any kind, whether corporate or political, is a very grey area — one of the greyest there is, in fact. Let's not even get into the whole question of whether a company like Talisman should be expected to be a proxy for the outrage of the entire Western Hemisphere, and forced to act in ways that are better left to governments. Even if it wanted to, what could it do? Talisman is in Sudan because there is a whole pile of oil there that can be produced relatively cheaply, the same thing that drove Nexen (formerly Canadian Occidental) to Yemen, and Gulf Canada to Indonesia. The other partners in the Sudanese project are the Chinese government oil company and the Malaysian national oil company — both of which would probably jump at the chance to get a bigger stake in the project, and both of which would in all likelihood be a major step backward for the Sudanese. Ironically, one of the positive effects of Talisman's involvement in Sudan is the same thing that has made Mr. Buckee's life miserable — at least when it comes to annual meeting time — and that is the public attention that it creates about the situation in that country. If Talisman were to sell its stake in the Sudan project, would Mr. Reeves and his fellow critics picket the annual meeting of the Chinese national oil company? If China decided to take over the bulk of the project, Sudan and its problems would again be invisible, just as they were before Talisman got involved. In many ways, Talisman's involvement in Sudan is difficult to defend. Some of the money the Sudanese military Islamic government derives from the oil sold out of the Heglig oilfield likely goes to buy tanks and guns for the country's 20-year-long civil war against the largely Christian and animist southern Sudanese, and the airfield Talisman uses is also reportedly used by government military forces to launch helicopters and airplanes that may in turn be used to attack southern Sudanese villages. However, Talisman has also built schools and paid for water treatment facilities, health care and other things the Sudanese in the area desperately need. By its presence, it can help to put pressure on the Islamic rulers of the country to moderate their attack on their own people — a north versus south, Islamic versus non-Islamic struggle that has been going on ever since Britain and Egypt forced the dry and arid, Egypt-like north to merge with the lush, Africa-like south in the late 1800s. Another CEO might have thrown up his hands and sold the Sudan investment by now, since it has created far more trouble for the company than its size in relation to Talisman's assets (it is less than 10 per cent of the company's portfolio). But Jim Buckee is not just staying in Sudan because he is stubborn or hard-headed — he genuinely believes his company's presence, on balance, is likely to help rather than harm, and there is at least as much evidence on his side as there is on the opposite. If Talisman were not helping the government drill for oil, perhaps Sudan would have run out of money and the Islamic forces would have been deposed and replaced by a democratic government. On the other hand, maybe China would be funneling even more weapons into the country, and Sudan would be cozying up to Saddam Hussein for a loan. Would the southern Sudanese be in a better spot then, or are they better off now? globeandmail.ca