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Talisman Energy Inc. was a Canadian independent petroleum company that existed between 1993 and 2015. The company was created from the assets of
BP Canada BP Canada was a Canadian petroleum company and subsidiary of BP, British Petroleum that existed between 1955 and 1992. The name refers to a group of companies that engaged in various segments of the petroleum industry lifecycle. BP entered the Can ...
after British Petroleum divested its 57 percent stake in June 1992. It was one of Canada's largest independent oil and gas companies, and operated globally, with operations in Canada (B.C., Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Quebec) and the United States of America (Pennsylvania, New York, Texas ) in North America; Colombia, South America; Algeria in North Africa; United Kingdom and Norway in Europe; Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Australia in the Far East; and Kurdistan in the Middle East. Talisman Energy has also built the offshore
Beatrice Wind Farm The Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm now known as Beatrice Offshore Windfarm Ltd (BOWL) project, is an offshore wind farm close to the Beatrice oil field in the Moray Firth, part of the North Sea 13 km off the north east coast of Scotland. Hi ...
in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland. The company was acquired by
Repsol Repsol S.A.
El Nuevo Herald, 2012-05-31
Originally an init ...
in 2015 and in January 2016 was renamed to
Repsol Repsol S.A.
El Nuevo Herald, 2012-05-31
Originally an init ...
Oil & Gas Canada Inc. The company initially grew quickly through a number of
mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...
, which reflects in the complex history and large diversity of holdings. In the 2015
Forbes Global 2000 The ''Forbes'' Global 2000 is an annual ranking of the top 2000 public companies in the world, published by: sales, profit, assets and market value. The list has been published annually since 2003. By country Forbes Global 2000 as of 2023: ...
, Talisman Energy was ranked as the 1728th -largest public company in the world. Talisman was the first Canadian company to join the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights Plenary Group ( Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights) and is a participant in the
United Nations Global Compact The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to get businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is the world's ...
.


History


Background: 1925–92

The origins of Talisman energy traces to the Supertest Petroleum Corporation, which was founded in 1923 and headquartered in
London, Ontario London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...
. In 1953, British Petroleum Company (BP) entered the Canadian market through the purchase of a minority stake in Calgary-based Triad Oil Company. In the early 1950s, the power struggle between oil companies and host governments in Middle East started, which hampered operations of British Petroleum in the region, and prompted it to diversify its operations beyond the heavily Middle East dependent oil production. The Canadian holding company of British Petroleum was renamed BP Canada in 1969; and in 1971, it acquired 97.8% stake of Supertest. Subsequently, Supertest was renamed to BP Canada Ltd, and other Canadian interests of British Petroleum were amalgamated to the new company. BP retail operations disappeared from Canada in the early 1980s, when in 1982, BP Canada divested its downstream assets to
Petro-Canada Petro-Canada (colloquially known as Petro-Can) is a retail and wholesale marketing brand subsidiary of Suncor Energy. Until 1991, it was a federal Crown corporation (a state-owned enterprise). In August 2009, Petro-Canada merged with Suncor En ...
, which was at the time owned by the Government of Canada.


1992–2011

In 1992, British Petroleum sold off its 57% stake in BP Canada Ltd to the public. BP Canada was later renamed to Talisman Energy Inc. and one of Canada's largest independent oil and gas company was founded. After the split from British Petroleum, Talisman Energy sold off its money losing mining operations and focused on its large
natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...
holdings in British Columbia, Canada. Its subsidiary Fortuna Petroleum, became one of the first international oil companies to do business with
Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
. A year later in 1993, Talisman Energy bought Encor Inc from BCE, doubling in size and becoming one of Canada's largest petroleum companies. Talisman Energy acquired Bow Valley Energy from
British Gas PLC British Gas (trading as Scottish Gas in Scotland) is an energy and home services provider in the United Kingdom. It is the trading name of British Gas Services Limited and British Gas New Heating Limited, both subsidiaries of Centrica. Serving ...
in 1994, gaining more assets in Canada and an important presence in the North Sea and Southeast Asia. In 1995, it pulled out of Cuba to focus on these areas. In 1997, Talisman Energy launched a takeover bid of Wascana Energy, a former
crown corporation Crown corporation () is the term used in Canada for organizations that are structured like private companies, but are directly and wholly owned by the government. Crown corporations have a long-standing presence in the country, and have a sign ...
of the
Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...
government. It got into a bidding war over Wascana with Canadian Occidental Petroleum (later,
Nexen Nexen may refer to: * Nexen Energy, now CNOOC Petroleum North America, a Canadian oil and gas company * Nexen Tire, a Korean tire manufacturer *NEXEN, an online platform used by BNY {{disambiguation ...
), and failed in its attempt. It continued its aggressive expansion, investing in the North Sea and Indonesia; and in 1997, bought the smaller Pembina Resources. In 1999, Talisman Energy acquired Rigel Energy. Since then, Talisman has expanded its operation in
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
and in the
North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...
, with a brief exploration operations in South Eastern Trinidad & Tobago. On May 30, 2007, the company announced the retirement of its longtime President & CEO, James Buckee. John Manzoni, formerly of BP, was named as his successor, effective September 1, 2007. In January 2008, Talisman agreed to buy RSX Energy Inc, an oil and gas company based in
Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...
,
Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...
focused on
exploration Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...
and development in Western
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
. Formed in 1997 as Royal Sovereign Exploration Inc. it changed its name to RSX Energy in 2002.


2012

In July 2012, Talisman Energy sold part of its interests in Britain to focus on higher-growth
shale gas Shale gas is an unconventional natural gas that is found trapped within shale formations. Since the 1990s, a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has made large volumes of shale gas more economical to produce, and ...
projects in North America and Southeast Asia. A joint venture with China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation Limited (or
Sinopec China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec Group, is a Chinese oil and gas enterprise based in Chaoyang District, Beijing. The SASAC administers China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation for the benefit of State Council of the ...
) was announced, that saw Talisman sell 49% of its Aberdeen, Scotland-based North Sea business to Sinopec for US$1.5 billion. On September 10, 2012, the company announced that John Manzoni had agreed to step down as president and CEO, effective immediately, and would be replaced by board member Hal Kvisle. Kvisle had been on Talisman's board of directors since 2010 and was previously CEO of Canadian pipeline builder TransCanada Corp. between 2001 and 2010. The news surprised market analysts and fueled speculation that Talisman was then a greater potential takeover target, similar to that of industry peer Nexen Inc. when it agreed to a $15.1 billion acquisition made by China National Offshore Oil Co. two months earlier. However, Kvisle stressed that he and the board would be focused on making Talisman a "sustainable long-term, successful Canadian company" rather than putting it up for sale.


2013

In October 2013, activist investor
Carl Icahn Carl Celian Icahn (; born February 16, 1936) is an American businessman and investor. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach, ...
acquired around 61 million shares in the company and announced he would be seeking a place on the board. His acquisition prompted the firm's share price to rocket by 16% before ultimately plummeting 60% over the course of 2014 before Icahn divested.


Acquisition by Repsol 2014-2015

Following months of speculation and negotiations, Spanish energy company
Repsol Repsol S.A.
El Nuevo Herald, 2012-05-31
Originally an init ...
tendered an offer to buy Talisman in early December 2014 for per share. Including debt obligations of
billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: * 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of ...
, the deal was worth billion. On February 19, 2015, Talisman shareholders approved the acquisition offer from Repsol with 99 percent of shareholders in each class voting in favor of the deal. In January 2016,
Repsol Repsol S.A.
El Nuevo Herald, 2012-05-31
Originally an init ...
announced that the legal name of Talisman would be changed to Repsol Oil & Gas Canada Inc. effective January 1, 2016.


Controversy in Sudan

In 1998, Talisman made one of its most controversial moves when it purchased Arakis Energy. The acquired business had involvement in the
Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...
ese oil industry through a 25% interest in the Greater Nile Oil project operated by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC). Further, GNPOC was a consortium which included
Sinopec China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec Group, is a Chinese oil and gas enterprise based in Chaoyang District, Beijing. The SASAC administers China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation for the benefit of State Council of the ...
, the national petroleum company of China (40%);
Petronas Petroliam Nasional Berhad, commonly known as PETRONAS (stylised in all caps), is a Malaysian Multinational corporation, multinational petroleum, oil and natural gas, gas company headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. Established in 1974, it is a lega ...
, the national oil company of Malaysia (30%); and Sudapet, the national petroleum company of Sudan (5%).Human Security in Sudan: The Report of a Canadian Assessment Mission
/ref> At the time, the
Second Sudanese Civil War The Second Sudanese Civil War was a conflict from 1983 to 2005 between the central Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army/Movement, Sudan People's Liberation Army. It was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil Wa ...
was under way and the government of Sudan was almost totally reliant on oil revenues for its war effort. This war effort was repeatedly accused of
war crime A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...
s, human rights abuses, and
genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
. International observers accused the Sudanese government of forcibly displacing residents to make way for oil exploration and exploitation. As conditions in Sudan worsened, an international outcry developed led by NGOs and churches. They called for
divestment In finance and economics, divestment or divestiture is the reduction of some kind of asset for financial, ethical, or political objectives or sale of an existing business by a firm. A divestment is the opposite of an investment. Divestiture is a ...
in Talisman shares and pushed the Canadian government to penalize the company. As part of this protest, the
Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Christianity, Reformed Protestantism, Protestant tradition named for its form of ecclesiastical polity, church government by representative assemblies of Presbyterian polity#Elder, elders, known as ...
of Sudan sued the company in an American court for genocide, stating that Talisman had helped Sudanese officials "bomb churches, kill church leaders and attack villages in an effort to clear the way for oil exploration." In an unprecedented event, an American judge decided the lawsuit was valid, but it was later dismissed by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The court concluded that the plaintiffs had no admissible evidence to support the claims against Talisman Energy. The finding in the U.S. lawsuit is consistent with the report of the Harker mission in 2000, which admonished Talisman for not doing enough to stop human rights abuses by other groups, but did not find that Talisman had actively aided in any atrocities. In response to the allegations, Talisman initiated an annual third-party verified, "Corporate Responsibility Report" and implementing procedures for monitoring the company's compliance with the International Code of Ethics for Canadian Business.CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REPORT 2000, SUDAN OPERATIONS


In 2003, Talisman Energy divested the Sudan interest acquired through the Arakis acquisition, selling its complete 25% stake to Indian company ONGC Videsh. Whether this divestiture benefited the people of Sudan is highly questionable, with concern having been raised by one NGO active in the region: "If you pressure Talisman to leave Sudan then will the remaining actors take any action to address these critical issues? At least Talisman has taken notice and responded ...". Talisman's chief executive Jim Buckee was quoted by the BBC saying "It has been very difficult for us to operate n Sudan in the event of signing a peace agreement, we will come back to Sudan."


Leadership


President

# Dr James William Buckee, 1993–2007 # Sir John Alexander Manzoni, 2007–2012 # Harold Norman Kvisle, 2012–2015


Chairman of the Board

# David Anthony Claydon, 1993 # Stuart Keith McWalter, 1993–1996 # Peter Nigel Tinling Widdrington, 1996–2001 # David Evan Powell, 2001–2003 # Douglas Daniel Baldwin, 2003–2009 # Charles Ross Williamson, 2009–2015


See also

*
Repsol Sport Centre MNP Community & Sport Centre, formerly known as the Repsol Sport Centre, Talisman Centre and Lindsay Park Sports Centre, is a multi-sports complex in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. MNP Community & Sport Centre operates under a dual mandate as directe ...
*
Oil well An oil well is a drillhole boring in Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is released as associated petroleum gas along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce only gas m ...
*
Drilling Drilling is a cutting process where a drill bit is spun to cut a hole of circular cross section (geometry), cross-section in solid materials. The drill bit is usually a rotary Cutting tool (machining), cutting tool, often multi-point. The bit i ...
*
OPEC The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC ) is an organization enabling the co-operation of leading oil-producing and oil-dependent countries in order to collectively influence the global oil market and maximize Profit (eco ...
*
List of oil-producing states This is a list of countries by oil production (i.e., petroleum production), as compiled from the U.S. Energy Information Administration database for calendar year 2023, tabulating all countries on a comparable best-estimate basis. Compared wi ...


References


External links

*
CBS News - Black Gold For Blood Money In Sudan
*Carlisle, Tamsin. "Calgary Oil Firm Talisman Pays Painful Price for Sudan Investment." ''The Wall Street Journal.'' August 17, 2000 * Map of Talisman Energy's Marcellus Shale gas wells
FrackTrack
{{Authority control Oil companies of Canada Natural gas companies of Canada Companies based in Calgary Energy companies established in 1992 Non-renewable resource companies established in 1992 Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 2015 1992 establishments in Canada 2015 disestablishments in Canada Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies formerly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Defunct oil and gas companies of Canada