SURVIVORS' RIGHTS INTERNATIONAL | Drillbits & Tailings

[1] Talisman Energy of Canada (TLM on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges). Talisman is the only Western corporation in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), which now sends roughly US$500 million per year to the regime in Khartoum. Talisman entered Sudan in fall of 1998 by virtue of its acquisition of Canadian Arakis Energy thereby becoming a 25% partner in GNPOC. Talisman CEO Jim Buckee has described Sudan as a "friendly, peaceful place," and declared in published commentary that, "Increasingly, Sudan is becoming a relative source of regional stability." In fact, Talisman's security — like that for all the oil companies operating in Sudan — continues to take the form of brutal scorched-earth warfare, designed to displace or destroy the civilian populations in the southern oil regions.

[2] Petronas, the state-owned oil company of Malaysia. An original GNPOC partner, Petronas has a 30% stake in the consortium. Petronas is also a very significant participant in other concession areas in Sudan, and has a 28.5% share in Concession Block 5a, where presently human displacement and destruction related to oil development is most intense. They also have the "right of first refusal" on Talisman's 25% share in GNPOC, should Talisman withdraw. The Malaysian press has recently begun an intensive charm offensive of its own, celebrating the benefits that accrue to Sudan because of oil development. The numerous reports on scorched-earth warfare and civilian displacement in the oil regions are never mentioned.

[3] China National Petroleum Carnation (CNPC) the state-owned oil giant of the People's Republic of China. They have the largest share of the GNPOC consortium: 40%. They are also extremely active in the Adar Yel concession area in eastern Upper Nile (GNPOC areas are in western Upper Nile). China is the major military supplier to the Khartoum regime; they continue to do nearly all the construction in the oil regions; and Amnesty International reports that Chinese workers are armed, and evidently willing to use their weapons on Sudanese civilians. Many of the perhaps 15,000 Chinese nationals working in Sudan are from the military, or have military training. China — now a net importer of oil — looks to Sudan as its premier off-shore oil source. The CNPC has been amply capitalized by New York Stock Exchange-listed PetroChina. PetroChina is a virtually wholly owned and governed unit of the CNPC; almost US$300 million of last April's PetroChina IPO on the New York Stock Exchange went directly to the CNPC, and thus became available for use in Sudan. (PetroChina is PTR on the NYSE)

[4] Lundin Oil of Sweden (NASDAQ listing under: LOILY). This small oil exploration company very recently resumed activities in Concession Block 5a, south of Bentiu (GNPOC operations are north and west of Bentiu). They are presently the prime beneficiaries of the newly constructed, all-season road that extends 60 miles south of Bentiu and allows not only oil equipment but heavy military equipment to move south. Lundin is evidently not persuaded by the numerous reports of extremely intense scorched-earth warfare and civilian displacement associated with their oil development in Concession Block 5a.

[5] TotalFinaElf of France/Belgium (TOT on the New York Stock Exchange and in Paris). The oil giant is not yet active in its huge concession areas (running as far south as Juba in Equatoria), but all signs are that they will soon begin active exploration. This will mark a major escalation of Western corporate participation in oil development efforts in southern Sudan. Recent large-scale military moves by the Khartoum regime seem designed to secure TotalFinaElf's concessions.

[6] BP (BP on the New York Stock Exchange and in London). BP provided the critical investment in the PetroChina IPO (spring 2000). Without BP's US$578 million investment in the initial offering, it would have failed outright because of opposition from Sudan advocates, Tibet advocates, human rights groups, organized labor, and those concerned about the national security issues raised by an American capital market presence for Chinese oil companies. This makes BP responsible for the nearly US$300 million that went directly from the PetroChina IPO to China National Petroleum Corp (40% partner in the Greater Nile project).

[7] OMV of Austria. This Austrian oil company is in the process of privatizing (i.e., seeking a presence in capital markets). It is has a 26.125% stake in Concession Block 5a.

[8] Agip of Italy. Signed an agreement with Petronas in December, 1999 for oil exploration in Sudan.

[9] Royal Dutch Shell owns a refinery in Port Sudan; the Dutch Trafigura Beheer BV has served as the initial agent for Sudanese crude oil exports.

SOURCES: Complied by Eric Reeves, Professor at Smith Hampton College in Massachusetts, United States, using the following resources: "Sudan — The Human Cost of Oil," Amnesty International Report (London, May 3, 2000 – available at Amnesty International website; "US Policy to End Sudan's War: Report of the CSIS Task Force on US-Sudan Policy," Francis M. Deng, J. Stephen Morrison, co-chairs, CSIS Publication, February 2001, available at Center for Strategic and International Studies website; "Human Security in Sudan: The Report of a Canadian Assessment Mission," prepared for the Minister of Foreign Affairs by John Harker et al. (Ottawa), January 2000; available from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Government of Canada (Ottawa); "Situation of human rights in the Sudan," by Leonardo Franco, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights (Sudan), annual report to the General Assembly [October 1999], available at the UN website; "International Monetary Fund: Sudan — Second Review of the Second Annual Program Under the Medium-term Staff-Monitored Program," by Susan Creane, IMF Publication, November 6, 2000; "BP Amoco buys into PetroChina float: Oil company's Dollars 1bn stake may yet save Chinese sell-off," by James Kynge and Ho Swee-lin, Financial Times (London) March 25, 2000; [7] [On the interest of TotalFinaElf in Sudan's oil concessions] "Sudan: French company to invest in oil exploration," BBC Monitoring, December 20, 2000, available on Al-Ra'y al-Amm web site, Khartoum, in Arabic; "Lundin Oil AB: 2001 Capital Budget Increased By 46 Percent." Press Release, Vancouver, BC, Business Wire, January 15, 2001; "Quiet diplomacy: A shame and a farce," by Dave Toycen, Executive Director of World Vision Canada, in The Globe and Mail (Canada), February 15, 2001; "Protests, Regulatory Review Hamper Planned Stock Listing of PetroChina," by Peter Wonacott and Eduardo Lachica, Wall Street Journal, February 8, 2000; "Report on Sudan," Human Rights Watch, August 1998; US Committee for Refugees: www.refugees.org; For maps of the oil regions and patterns of civilian displacement, the resource of Sudan Update: www.sudanupdate.org]; "Working Document II: Quantifying Genocide in Southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains, 1983-1998," by Millard Burr, publication of the US Committee for Refugees, December 1998; "Sudan: Humanitarian Crisis, Human Rights Abysm," Eric Reeves; Human Rights Review, Volume 1, Number 3 [Spring, 2000].

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