Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : TLM.TSE Talisman Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Casey who wrote (1314)	10/16/2001 3:58:02 PM
From: VisionsOfSugarplums	Respond to of 1713

Nope, can't, but who knows. Article on selling Sudan assets from conference: news.ft.com Talisman says it has suitors for Sudan assets By David Buchan, Energy Correspondent, in London Published: October 16 2001 17:06 \| Last Updated: October 16 2001 17:16 Asian state oil companies and Saudi princes are vying to buy the controversial Sudanese oil assets that Talisman Energy of Canada is being pressured to sell, its chief executive said on Tuesday. Jim Buckee, Talisman's chief executive, warned that the public campaign by human rights organisations for his company to leave Sudan was counter-productive because its place would be taken by others "less enthusiastic" about corporate social responsibility. Talisman has a 25 per cent stake in Sudan's Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), in which China National Petroleum Corporation has 40 per cent, the Malaysia state-owned Petronas has 30 per cent and Sudapet, the Sudanese state oil company, 5 per cent. Sudan, at loggerheads with the US through much of the 1990s is now cooperating with the US in its war against terrorism. The United Nations has dropped sanctions against Sudan. Though the US still has some restrictions on Khartoum, Congress has abandoned its attempt to bar Talisman and other companies operating in Sudan from raising money in US capital markets. But Mr Buckee said Talisman was still under pressure from NGOs who accused it of providing the Sudan government with oil revenue to finance its long civil war with southern rebels. Mr Buckee, addressing a conference on corporate social responsibility organised by London's Royal Institute of International Affairs, said Talisman had not yet decided to sell its quarter stake in GNPOC, which was "a very good asset" producing nearly 60,000 b/d for the company. But he had received "quite a lot of approaches from Far Eastern governments and companies worried about their oil import dependence", and had had discussions in the Middle East "involving various Saudi princes" who might finance a purchaser. "If they come up with a good price, we would sell", said Mr Buckee. While Sudan provided Talisman with a tenth of its oil, he said he had spent far more than a tenth of his time fending off pressure from the US Congress, the New York Stock Exchange and non-governmental organisations. But the Talisman chief defended Talisman's "constructive engagement" in Sudan, building schools and hospitals and urging the government to share oil revenue. Companies could not fight the fact that more than half the world's oil lies in developing countries, and three quarters of it in Muslim countries, he said. "Who's to say Angola is good, Sudan bad, or Saudi Arabia is good and Burma bad?", he queried. Regards, t.