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

To: Tomas who wrote (2618)	7/6/2001 10:35:24 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

Libya: "Lundin is bidding for new exploration licences and intends to continue its operations in Libya following completion of the sale" Middle East Economic Digest, July 6 Libya: Petro-Canada buys En-Naga assets Calgary-based Petro-Canada announced on 21 June the purchase of a strategic stake in the 100 million-barrel En-Naga oil field. The Canadian oil company has agreed to pay Sweden's Lundin Oil $75 million for its 25 per cent stake in the field, which is located in Block NC-177 of the southern Sirte basin. Lundin's decision to sell its stake in the concession comes as a surprise following the award in February of two engineering contracts worth $27 million in total for the field's development. Lundin, in partnership with the National Oil Corporation (NOC) -which has a 75 per cent stake in the field - was expected to begin production of 15,000 barrels a day (b/d) of 41o API crude this year. "Lundin Oil will proceed as planned with the development of the field until we hand over to PetroCanada," says a spokesperson for Lundin. "Work is on schedule and we expect to start drilling this month, with first oil by the end of the year." However, Petro-Canada has indicated that the development may be slower than was first expected. "We have received extensive data on the En-Naga field from Lundin Oil," says a spokesperson for Petro-Canada. "We feel that further delineation of the block is necessary before we can progress with the development." Petro-Canada has been looking to acquire exploration and production acreage m North Africa for some years. Earlier this year, the company pulled out of negotiations with Sonatrach for the Tinhert gas field development project in Algeria. NOC is still evaluating the En-Naga deal, which is expected to be formally approved by the end of the year. Lundin is bidding for new exploration licences and intends to continue its operations in Libya following completion of the sale. The deal is part of a strategic restructuring that has seen key assets in Russia and Sudan spun-off into a new company called Lundin Petroleum.

To: Tomas who wrote (2618)	7/9/2001 11:20:33 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

Next: an embargo on sanctions The Cincinnati Post, July 9 Over the years, Congress, in response to one crisis or another, has imposed about 100 separate sanctions on 75 countries despite the proven fact that sanctions are an ineffectual tool of foreign policy. The United States has imposed sanctions on Cuba for 38 years with the goal of toppling Fidel Castro. Castro is still there, and Canadian and European companies get to build all the best resorts. Some sanctions - those against Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea and Sudan, for example - express a legitimate moral outrage against cruel regimes but accomplish little practical good. The sanctions rarely hurt the insulated leaders of those regimes but they do punish the poorest and weakest of their populations. Sanctions are popular with Congress because they seem cost-free, but a good case can be made that they are counter productive. American industries and farms lose markets and U.S. energy companies lose development opportunities that competitors are only too happy to exploit. The U.S. government loses access and influence in the targeted country. Since the sanctions are imposed unilaterally, they tend to irritate our allies, especially when Congress tries to take reprisals against the businesses of friendly countries. Once imposed, sanctions are difficult to lift; it's a tough vote for lawmakers. That's why Congress this summer will automatically renew futile sanctions against Libya and Iran. At campaign time, no one wants to be portrayed as pro-ayatollah. Sen. Richard Luger, the Indiana Republican and one of the country's leading lights on foreign policy, has introduced a bill with bipartisan support to bring some order to the sanctions mess. His bill would require any proposed sanctions to have a clear sense of purpose, to be justified by cost-benefit analysis and to have a sunset date so they don't run on forever. A useful addition would be to give presidents a free hand to lift sanctions. The Bush administration hasn't spoken on the issue yet, but Secretary of State Colin Powell is against open-ended economic sanctions and has asked Congress not to pass any more. The administration should either get behind this bill or draft a sanctions reform package of its own. cincypost.com