Sudan: 'It Will Succeed, God Willing': With Billions Invested In Pipelines And Refineries, Talisman
Readies To Export Sudanese Oil Amid Security Fears And Hopes For A Better Future
Financial Post, Monday August 23
HEGLIG, Sudan - Beneath the sandy red soil where northern desert melts into
southern greenery rests the potential for developing this impoverished African
country -- and for inflaming its 16-year-old civil war.
With the help of Calgary-based oil producer Talisman Energy Inc., Sudan is ready
to commercially exploit its oil reserves for the first time. And in a country of many
deep divisions and fragile, shifting alliances, everyone wants a piece of any future
wealth.
Fighting already has flared in the oil region, though with billions invested in
pipeline and refineries it could be years before there is revenue to divvy up.
Southern rebels have threatened to blow up the new 1,610-kilometre pipeline, and
government allies are battling government militias for the right to protect pumping
stations.
Fears abound that fighting will worsen and that the government will overlook
development in favor of building up its military in an attempt to crush the rebellion.
The war for southern autonomy and related famine already has killed nearly two
million people and displaced millions more.
Pumping of 150,000 barrels of crude oil is expected to begin soon, and increase to
perhaps as much as 450,000 barrels a day, said Jim Buckee, chief executive of
Talisman.
The company has a 25% share of the Sudan project. The Sudanese government is
to receive 60% of the revenue, and the rest will go to other companies involved.
Recoverable reserves in the Heglig area of central Sudan, 700 kilometres
southwest of Khartoum, are estimated at 627 million barrels, and investors are
looking at developing other fields.
Talisman has been criticized for working with the Sudanese government, which
human rights groups and Western diplomats accuse of exacerbating tribal rivalries
and trying to force an Islamic state on the south, where Christianity and tribal
religions predominate.
Mr. Buckee defends his company's role, saying it employs many Sudanese and
has helped build roads, water wells and a hospital.
"The alternative is stagnation," he said. "I fervently hope that the wealth is for the
benefit of all the people in Sudan, including the people in the south."
Mr. Buckee is satisfied security is adequate to protect the pumping stations and
pipeline.
"We've seen it in Algeria, Yemen, Indonesia and so on," he said. "No matter what
happens, the oilfield keeps going because nobody comes in promising a better
life for the people and then turns off the tap."
Occasional sabotage cannot slow production long, he said.
Just who will protect the pipeline is a point of contention that appears to be
pushing some who joined the government in 1997 back to the southern rebels led
by John Garang and his Sudan People's Liberation Army.
The government's 1997 peace agreement with six smaller rebel groups froze all
parties' forces where they were, and that left rebels-turned-allies in charge of
security in oil areas.
An attempt in May to put government militias in charge near oil-rich Bentiu, 97
kilometres south of Heglig, led to open warfare among the allies. Forces of the
former rebel Riak Machar were pushed back by government militiamen, who now
guard the area.
Tito Biel, another government ally since 1997 and former rebel field commander,
defected to the Sudan People's Liberation Army in late May. His forces were based
near Bentiu. Skirmishes in the area have continued since.
Makuac Teny Youk, a state minister and spokesman for the former rebel United
Democratic Salvation Front, said he expects more trouble among the anti-Garang
factions if the government insists its militias guard the oil fields.
"We cannot be fighting ourselves inside Sudan while we say that we want Garang
to come to peace. It will just be killing ourselves," he said.
Officials from the Energy Ministry and the Interior Ministry, which oversees security
in the oil areas, say talk of troubles in the region is exaggerated.
"We think that now the area is completely safe," said Abdel Rahim Mohamed
Hussein of the Interior Ministry. "When you have a pipeline going through 1,600
kilometres, that is a long way. But I think we have it secured in such a way that we
can protect the property."
asrah Ismail, who lives in Maram village a mile from the Heglig pumping station, is
well aware of the new dangers. She said her brother died in April during a clash
between the army and attacking rebel forces who abducted some villagers.
But, as final work wraps up on pumping stations, she is optimistic that oil
eventually will improve the lives of Sudanese.
"The oil will come out for the whole region -- for the whole of Sudan," Ms. Ismail
said. "It will succeed, God willing."
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