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

To: Razorbak who wrote (991)	4/11/1999 10:42:00 PM
From: Tomas	Respond to of 2742

Papua New Guinea: Chevron confident of gas go-ahead in the near term PostCourier, Monday April 12 BRISBANE: The operator of the multi-billion dollar Papua New Guinea gas pipeline project said it expected a resolution on the integration of the reserves in the near term. A Chevron Corp spokesman said he could not comment on media reports that Sydney-based Oil Search Ltd was on the verge of taking over from Exxon Corp in negotiations to integrate the Hides reserves with the project. The Australian Financial Review reported that Exxon and fellow US-based energy giant Chevron were deadlocked after four months of intense negotiations. ''Discussions between the two joint ventures are continuing and we're confident of a positive outcome in the near term,'' the spokesman said on Friday. He said the negotiations were between the partners in the two joint venture production licences, PDL 1, covering Hides, and PDL 2, which covered the adjacent Chevron-operated Kutubu reserve in PNG's southern highlands. Santos managing director Ross Adler was reported as saying the project still had only a 50 per cent chance of proceeding. Santos has a 25 per cent stake in the Hides reserves. postcourier.com.pg

To: Razorbak who wrote (991)	4/13/1999 9:44:00 PM
From: Tomas	Respond to of 2742

Sudan Confirm Oil Reserves of 800 Million Barrels Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) April 13 - As Sudan to exploit its reserves of oil, an official in Khartoum was able to give information on quantity and quality of discovered crude. Speaking to PANA on Sunday the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Energy and Mining, Hassan Ali el Toam, said "Sudan's recoverable reserve so far is estimated at 800 million barrels." El Toam has, however, said this is not a final assessment "because we are still in the beginning of the oil exploration era." "There are many oil indications throughout the country. This is rather a short period to assess the real potential of Sudan," he added. He said: "Some 85 percent of the prospective areas remain unexplored and there is no sufficient data to make an estimate." The official described the crude from Helig and and Unity oil fields in Western and Southern Sudan, respectively, which is now under exploitation, as "of medium gravity paraffin and low sulphur". The country is at the moment building a 1,160 km pipeline from Heglig and Unity oil fields to the Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Designed at a daily capacity of 450,000 barrels, the pipeline will pump 150,000 barrels a day at the initial phase beginning July, the deadline for the final construction of the 600-million dollar pipeline. At the same time a 600-million-dollar oil refinery is being built at el Jaili village (30 Km north of Khartoum) which will refine a daily 50,000 of this crude for local consumption. Exploitation of the crude is being undertaken by a consortium of firms from China, Malaysia, Canada, Britain and Argentina. Meanwhile, the official has disclosed that the French Total oil company has expressed willingness to resume work in its consessional areas in Bor Basin (South Sudan), which it had quit in 1983 when civil war erupted in that part of the country. A delegation from Total last Thursday visited Khartoum for talks on the matter with Sudanese officials. Envoys from the Ministry of Energy and Mining are set to travel to Paris for further discussions. But according to el Toam "no date is agreed yet for the resumption of Total activities." sudan.net

To: Razorbak who wrote (991)	4/22/1999 11:40:00 PM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

The Geneva conference on oil investments in Libya - Libyan-U.S. oil ties shackled by politics. Analysis By Kate Dourian GENEVA, April 22 (Reuters) - Senior U.S. oil executives broke bread with Libya's top policy makers over dinner in Geneva this week on the eve of an energy conference but there was little else for the Americans to chew on. Shackled by their government's sanctions against Libya, the Americans could only watch as Europeans, South Koreans and Canadians dealt out calling cards and negotiated hard deals. The timing of the conference, soon after the suspension of U.N. sanctions against Libya, attracted hundreds of oil and gas executives. Organisers said registrations swelled from just under 200 to more than 400 after April 5, when the United Nations suspended the 1992 sanctions after Tripoli handed over two suspects for trial over the 1988 Pan Am airline bombing. Relegated to mere spectators, the U.S. delegates could do no more than express polite interest as they wait out the U.S. sanctions, likely to remain in place into the next millennium. It became obvious during the two-day conference that the departure of U.S. oil firms from Libya in 1986 on the orders of then President Ronald Reagan did not halt its oil expansion. ''In spite of the U.S. and Security Council sanctions Libya, with the assistance of its friends in the region, was able to overcome most of the difficulties that were encountered,'' Energy Minister Abdullah al-Badri told the opening session. ''Now that the U.N. sanctions have been ended, we hope that the U.S.-imposed sanctions will end at once, so that the American companies are able to resume their operations in Libya.'' The atmosphere in Geneva's neutral surroundings contrasted with the harsh words that have characterised diplomatic language between Tripoli and Washington since the early 1980s, when Reagan accused Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi of sponsoring terrorism and later ordered attacks against Libya in reprisal. When Badri sat down at the top table during a dinner hosted by France's Elf, a senior executive for a U.S. independent was there as was a top official from Italy's Agip, the biggest operator in Libya. But the language spoken was English. During coffee breaks, delegates from U.S. oil firms could be seen positioning themselves within view of Libyan oil officials, most of whom were educated and trained in the United States. Representatives of U.S. oil firms Amerada Hess, USX Marathon, Conoco, Occidental and Chevron all came but none would say if they had bilateral meetings with the Libyans. ''Libya is coming home and I hope that many U.S. oil companies will be part of this homecoming,'' said J. Brooks Buxton, director of Conoco Middle East. Speaking to the majority audience of Europeans, who displaced the original U.S. pioneers in Libya, he recalled that the North African country was an ''American oil company and an American oil service industry province'' for several years after the first oil was discovered in 1959. That all changed when Reagan ordered U.S. companies to cease operations and quit the country in 1986. Libyan state oil firms took over the U.S. fields and new territory was ceded to French, Italian, British, German, Spanish and Austrian firms. In 1996, Washington passed the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA), which threatens to penalise any foreign oil company investing more than $20 million a year in the energy sectors of Iran or Libya. It has not been applied against Libya yet. Badri said that in his view ILSA was ''dead and buried,'' a reference to waivers granted to recent oil deals with Iran. The U.S. administration has said that there would be no immediate end to unilateral sanctions but none of this appeared to worry the Libyans much as they depicted their country's potential oil riches to prospective investors, including bankers, aviation experts and construction firms. In politics too, Gaddafi was taking centre stage. In the last two weeks, he negotiated a ceasefire in Congo and mediated in the Sudan-Eritrea conflict while playing host to a stream of foreign visitors, including Italy's foreign minister and Jordan's King Abdullah. Libya, seen as a secure and cheap source of oil and gas for the European market to the north, attended a Euro-Mediterranean meeting in Germany last week as part of its rehabilitation. A senior non-Libyan delegate said the Americans could not afford to stay away from the Geneva conference and risk losing out to the Europeans who now produce roughly one third of Libyan oil. ''Because of sanctions, the Americans are excluded from Iran, Iraq and Libya, three low-cost sources of oil,'' he said. Libya is planning to revise its 40-year-old petroleum law and issue an international oil licensing round in early 2000 but officials said U.S. oil acreage would be protected under an agreement which expired in 1989 but which Libya still honours. ''Libya's position as a pivotal North African oil and gas producer with direct access to markets in Europe and the Mediterranean basin will continue well into the millennium and hopefully, the U.S. oil companies will be back operating in Libya by then,'' Buxton said. biz.yahoo.com