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

To: Tomas who wrote (2463)	5/30/2001 8:09:14 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

EU to Look at Oil Companies' Investments in Sudan By Victoria Knight BRUSSELS, May 29 (Dow Jones) - Oil companies could face tough questions on their investments in the Sudan as the European Union goes on a fact-finding mission to the African country next month to investigate alleged human rights abuses. Human rights groups called on the European Union Tuesday to impose a temporary ban on investments by European companies in the Sudanese oil sector and to close its borders to Nile Blend crude until peace has been restored in the region, which has been embroiled in Africa's longest running civil war. The U.S. has been imposing economic sanctions on Sudan since 1997 in response to the country's support of terrorism. "Since 1983, the civil war in Sudan has led to at least two million dead and four million displaced people. All sides to the conflict are responsible for displacements, but the recent drive for oil is taking the war into new areas. Oil offers Sudan a unique opportunity for peace and development. The country is highly indebted; its population needs health care, education and food security; and most of all, its people needs peace to prosper and oil revenues could be a strong incentive for that. Instead, the oil is fueling war," the European Coalition on Oil in Sudan said Tuesday at the launch of its Peace First campaign. The campaign, which represents the views of 40 human rights groups, calls for oil companies to immediately suspend their Sudanese operations. These include: Sweden's Lundin Oil AB (LOILY) and Austria's OMV AG (R.OMV), both of which hold stakes in concession block 5a, south of Bentiu, in southern Sudan; Canada's Talisman Energy Inc (T.TML), Malaysia's Petroleum Nasional BHD (P.PET), and Hong Kong's CNPC Ltd. (H.CNC), all of which have stakes in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Co. or Gnpoc. It also applies to TotalFinaElf (TOT), which owns a concession in southern Sudan and is trading Sudanese Nile Blend crude oil; ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM) and Royal/Dutch Shell (RD), which ECOS claims are selling aviation fuel in Sudan, although the latter has since pledged to cease this operation. ECOS has also raised concerns that BP PLC's (BP) $580 million investment in PetroChina Co. Ltd. (PTR), a subsidiary of CNPC, could be used to fund CNPC's operations in Sudan. However, Robin Berkeley, BP's representative in Brussels, dismissed the claim. "It is a distortion of the facts to say that BP is involved in the Sudan. We aren't involved there in any way," he said. "We have gone to extreme lengths to ensure that the accounts (of the two companies) remain separate." The ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly will fly to Sudan June 26 and June 27. The delegation will consist of three members from the Afro-Caribbean-Pacific countries and three members from the European Parliament, led by John Corrie, a member of the European Peoples' Party. Its findings will be reported in July. The Sudanese Embassy released a statement Tuesday that denied oil revenue is used to bankroll the civil war. "Of the 200,000 barrels a day produced, 60% of the proceeds goes to (Gnpoc), the other 40% goes to the (International Monetary Fund). Are you also going to tell Sudan to stop exporting cotton or sesame oil as it will fuel the war? This money isn't being used for war. It is being used for the benefit of local community," the statement said.