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

To: Tomas who wrote (2417)	5/18/2001 12:19:43 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

Sudan: New Muglad basin block awarded Middle East Economic Digest, May 18 Exploitation of the country's substantial hydrocarbons resources is moving ahead with the award of a new onshore exploration block in the Muglad basin. The government signed on 3 May an exploration and production sharing agreement with a consortium of international oil companies (JOCs) for the licence to develop Block 5-B. The operating team is Malaysia's Petronas Carigali Overseas, with a 41 per cent stake, and the state-owned Sudapet, with 10 per cent. Austria's OMV and Lundin Muglad -a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sweden s Lundin Oil - are also participating in the venture, each holding a 24.5 per cent stake. Block 5-B covers an area of 20,119 square kilometres in the south of the country and is adjacent to Block 5-A where drilling tests are well advanced. Lundin is the operator in Block 5-A, in partnership with Petronas, DMV and Sudapet. Three-D seismic surveys in Block 5-B will begin in June, followed by initial test drilling in 2002, the operators say. The Muglad basin, 800 kilometres southwest of Khartoum, is one of the last remaining undeveloped but proven oil exploration areas in the world. Both blocks are adjacent to he Unity and Heglig fields, which have reserves estimated at 650 million-800 million barrels. The predominantly Christian area has also attracted the attention of humanitarian organisations, which have focused their attention on the activities of lOCs in the Muglad basin. "Negotiations for Block 5-B have been going on for a long time," says Lundin Oil's president, Ian Lundin. "The decision to go ahead with the agreement preceded any of the current humanitarian issues." Operators have been accused by humanitarian groups of turning a blind eye to human rights abuses, in the search for bigger profits. However, oil company executives have been quick to refute the allegations, stating their commitment to the region and its local community. "Our presence does more good than harm," says Lundin. "It has focused world attention on what is happening. If foreign companies pulled out as a result of humanitarian considerations this would result in mayhem."

To: Tomas who wrote (2417)	5/28/2001 10:29:02 PM
From: Tomas	Respond to of 2742

Germany believes USA leaked Libya minutes to foil economic plans Were the Libya minutes leaked by the US? Welt am Sonntag, 27 May It is assumed within the Federal Chancellor's Office and the SPD [Social Democratic Party] leadership, according to information received from these sources by Welt am Sonntag, that the minutes of talks between Chancellor Schroeder and US President Bush were deliberately leaked by the American side to thwart German economic interests in Libya. According to the controversial minutes drafted by German Ambassador Juergen Chrobog, the chancellor's adviser Michael Steiner informed the US leadership at the end of March that Libyan ruler al-Qadhafi had admitted his country's involvement in the terrorist attacks on Berlin's "La Belle" disco and on the PanAm airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. Last week's publication of the minutes led to ill-feeling both between Berlin and Washington, and between the Chancellor's Office and the Foreign Ministry. This latest assumption in Berlin is rooted in the fact that BASF subsidiary Wintershall is seeking to acquire a stake in a state-owned oilfield in Libya, and is presently engaged in a bidding process with Shell, BP and Total Fina. This was also the cause of diplomatic tension during this month's visit by Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer to Washington, with influential US Senators Jesse Helms (Republican) and Joseph R. Hiden Jr. (Democrat) calling on Fischer to induce BASF's Kassel-based subsidiary to finally stop doing business at America's expense. Otherwise, relations between the Federal Republic and the United States would be seriously damaged. In Germany, the American threat met with incomprehension. A consortium of American firms did have to withdraw from the Libyan market in 1986 owing to the US sanctions imposed after the attack on Berlin's La Belle disco; since then, their 40 per cent share of Tripoli's controversial oil reserves has been administered through trustees. The current bidding process concerns the remaining 60 per cent share of Libyan state-owned company NOC. "We don't see how we're harming the rights of third parties," Wintershall spokesperson Susanne Ulitzsch told Welt am Sonntag. Karl Lamers, foreign policy spokesperson for the CDU/CSU [Christian Democratic/Social Union] Bundestag group, pointed out that the BASF subsidiary was pursuing a legitimate interest in Libya. But if the impression were now to arise in the United States that Germany was launching a diversionary manoeuvre over the affair of the minutes, then relations would suffer serious further damage. "Anyone doing this sort of thing must name names," stated Lamers, who believed it was out of the question for American sources to have committed such an indiscretion.