This is ridiculous. This Canadian company has become a Western apologist for the Sudanese government. New York City's comptroller has warned the city's pension fund that Talisman might not be a morally appropriate investment. Yesterday, a spokesman for the comptroller declined to comment. But at Heglig, the site of one of Talisman's major oilfields and processing facilities, there is no evidence of population displacement.
Military presence is low key.
Children are playing and going to school near the oil wells. Western and Sudanese workers say thousands of nomads are coming here to look for work, for medical assistance at a Talisman-funded hospital, or for education at a school funded by the project. Some of the analysts on the tour are already upgrading their outlook for the company's stock, which was battered in recent weeks in selling related to Sudan's perceived political risk. Robert Plexman, an analyst with CIBC World Markets Inc. in Toronto, was one of the first off the mark to file a glowing dispatch from Sudan. The war has been raging for years, but things are headed in the right direction.