Fuelling a fire

WHEN Talisman bought a chunk of oil rights in Sudan two years ago, Jim Buckee, the Canadian company's chief executive, talked of its “spectacular potential”. Spectacular it has been, but not always in ways that pleased Mr Buckee. The Heglig field lies across all the faultlines that have caused Sudan's civil war: political, religious and ethnic. Like Shell in Nigeria, Talisman has found itself in the middle of a war and under fire from activists back home.