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

To: Tomas who wrote (552)	5/6/1998 8:51:00 AM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

Argentina warns it wants Falklands royalties-paper BUENOS AIRES, May 4 (Reuters) - Argentine Foreign Minister Guido Di Tella said the government would use all means at its disposal against oil firms drilling off the disputed Falkland Islands if they do not pay a three percent royalty, press reports said on Monday. ''If the companies pay us the three percent, we won't give them a hard time. They don't pay the three percent, we will give them a hard time,'' Di Tella told Clarin newspaper in an interview. Argentina and Britain fought a 10-week war in 1982. Argentina was defeated, but continues to press its 150-year-old territorial claim on the South Atlantic archipelago. Both countries resumed diplomatic links in 1989, and in 1995 signed a complex agreement on oil and gas exploration that allows each to levy royalties -- the Falklands government nine percent and Argentina three percent -- without recognizing each other's right to levy the charge. Di Tella said he expected Congress to approve a bill to levy the three percent royalty this week. The ruling Peronist Party is the largest minority in the lower chamber and has a majority in the Senate. Di Tella said that if companies don't pay the royalty, the Argentine government could block their activities on Argentine territory. However, Argentina would have only a limited ability to influence companies that do not do business within its borders. Drilling for oil off the Falklands began late last month, with Amerada Hess (AHC - news) announcing that it is operating a rig. When reminded that Amerada does not conduct business on Argentine soil, he replied, ''Well, they (would) lose the possibility to participate in the Argentine market'' if they did not pay the royalty. Asked whether that was the extent of Argentina's ability to respond to such a situation, he quipped: ''No. We launch a hostile action. In two days, we launch 40 tanks with parachutes and torture the British ambassador...'' The Borgny Dolphin rig was hired by Amerada Hess for three years under the Falklands Offshore Sharing Agreement (FOSA), which also includes Royal Dutch/Shell (RD.AS) (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: SHEL.L), Lasmo Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: LSMR.L), and Sweden's Lundin Oil AB (LOILb.ST). biz.yahoo.com _______________________________________________________ Argentina proposes sanctions on Falklands oil firms By Axel Bugge BUENOS AIRES, May 5 (Reuters) - Argentina's Congress will discuss on Tuesday a proposed law to sanction oil companies drilling off the Falkland Islands if they do not respect Argentine laws when they operate in the disputed region. The draft bill states that any firm drilling off the islands, over which Argentina and Britain went to war in 1982, has to adhere to Argentina's rules on oil drilling, according to a copy of the proposal acquired by Reuters. If firms do not abide by those rules, ''they will be barred completely from carrying out any commercial activities on Argentine territory.'' Fines of $10 million could be levied. The proposal will be discussed by two parliamentary committees later Tuesday and is likely to be debated in the lower chamber of Congress on Wednesday. Although Eduardo Menem, a senator for the ruling Peronist Party and President Carlos Menem's brother, first proposed the bill last year, it is now being rushed through after drilling for oil off the islands commenced last week. U.S. oil company Amerada Hess Corp's (AHC - news) Borgny Dolphin rig began drilling off the Falklands last week. Buenos Aires reacted with a statement saying it ''does not recognize'' Britain's right to authoriize such activities. A spokesman for Sen. Menem told Reuters Tuesday: ''Judging by comments by lawmakers, the bill is being processed in an accelerated fashion,'' Argentina was defeated in the 10-week war with Britain. In 1989, the two countries resumed diplomatic links, although Argentina maintains its 150-year-old territorial claim. They signed a framework accord on oil and gas exploration around the Falklands, which Argentina calls the Malvinas, in 1995 but oil exploration remains a sore point for Argentina. The bill would complement a government-sponsored change to the current Hydrocarbons Law slapping a three percent royalty on companies drilling off the Falklands. That law establishes the overall framework for oil exploration in Argentina. Foreign Minister Guido Di Tella said last week: ''If the companies pay us the three percent, we won't give them a hard time. They don't pay the three percent, we will give them a hard time.'' Government officials say the change to the Hydrocarbons Law will be put to Congress this week, probably on Wednesday. Separately, the Alliance opposition has summoned Di Tella to explain his stance on the Falklands in Congress. One of the issues it wants to be clarified is whether the government is negotiating with Britain on oil royalties in the area covered by the 1995 agreement. That would be an ''act which could be interpreted as a tacit recognition of Britain's sovereignty over the waters,'' the Alliance summons said. Oil industry officials say there is a 10-15 percent chance of finding commercial quantities of oil in the remote islands, one of the world's last unexplored sedimentary basins. biz.yahoo.com

To: Tomas who wrote (552)	5/13/1998 7:05:00 PM
From: Tomas	Respond to of 2742

Papua New Guinea Pipeline project in progress "The National", Wednesday May 13 LAE: Significant progress has been made on the proposed PNG-Queensland gas pipeline project, Orogen Minerals managing director Charles Lepani told shareholders here yesterday. Addressing the company's annual general meeting, Mr Lepani said that the PNG-Queensland gas pipeline would be a significant and exciting investment for Orogen. "A range of successful negotiations is now taking place with potential customers, pipeline builders, owners and operators, landowners in PNG and Australia and with governments in both countries," Mr Lepani said. He said the engineering feasibility studies would be finalised this year in preparation for the consortium to work on the detailed design and construction of the gas pipeline. Mr Lepani said that a decision on the project would be made by March 1999 and that the first gas delivery was expected by Sept 2001. wr.com.au __________________________________________________________ Orogen confident of pipeline's customers "The National", Thursday May 14 BRISBANE: The consortium behind the proposed A$3 billion (K3.95 billion) gas pipeline from Papua New Guinea to Queensland is confident that Comalco Ltd would decide to build its greenfield alumina refinery in Gladstone and become one of the pipeline's foundation customers, Orogen Minerals Ltd managing director Charles Lepani has said. But if the multi-billion dollar gas refinery was not built at Gladstone, the consortium had other potential customers it was negotiating with, Mr Lepani said yesterday. "If they eventually decide not to go for Gladstone we have to be prepared," he said after an Orogen shareholders meeting in Brisbane. Orogen, a participant in the Kutubu and Gobe oil and gas fields, forms part of the consortium which will develop, construct and operate the proposed natural gas pipeline from Kopi in PNG to Queensland. Chevron Asiatic Ltd are project managers. Comalco has short-listed Gladstone and Bintula in Sarawak, Malaysia, as the preferred sites for its multi-billion dollar refinery, which Mr Lepani said, would require between 25 to 26 petajoules of gas a year. He said he was confident from private discussions with Terry Palmer, the managing director of Comalco, that Gladstone would be chosen. "We know they'll say yes," he said. "Even if Malaysia has that one or two per cent advantage in rate of return they would prefer to still stay here," Mr Lepani said, pending other state and federal government conditions falling in place. "All things indicate they will stay here but they will push us right to the wall." He said Comalco were "dragging their feet" as a decision by the Comalco investment committee on the alumina project was not expected until October. "We're trying to get them to make a decision earlier," he said. Comalco and the proposed Stanwell-Destec gas-fired power station in Townsville were the two foundation customers for the pipeline, demanding reserves of six trillion cubic feet of gas. Mr Lepani said PNG had potential reserves of 40 trillion cubic feet. Joint venture partner Oil Search Ltd's recent purchase of BP's upstream oil and gas assets in PNG had boosted reserves to meet foundation demand for the pipeline, he said. Mr Lepani said now that the pipeline project was no longer considered a "pie in the sky" project, other potential customers had come forward including an alumina refinery. "We now have three or four big fellas knocking on the door and we are very pleased with that," he said. "We're satisfied we've got the foundation customers to get the project going." Besides Comalco and Stanwell-Destec, the combined demand of the other potential customers could be between 40 to 50 petajoules a year, he said. He said the other options also included the pipeline extending west from Townsville, instead of south to Gladstone. The successful tender to design and construct the pipeline would probably be announced next week, he said. Engineering feasibility studies on the project are due for completion this year, with a development decision on the project being made in the first quarter of 1999 and the first delivery of gas to customers in the third quarter of 2001. The pipeline consists of two sections, the "upstream" pipeline and infrastructure in PNG and the "downstream" marine and onshore pipeline from PNG to Gladstone. Orogen chairman David Beatty said the company did not intend to invest in the pipeline project "downstream" unless the operator and the customers required them to do so. wr.com.au