U.S.-based ConocoPhillips and Anadarko dangle Canadian assets
In a market hungry for growth, but starved of opportunities, the Canadian upstream sector is getting a helping hand from ConocoPhillips and Anadarko.
The two big U.S.-based companies have, respectively, placed daily production properties of 23,000 barrels of oil equivalent and 69,000 boe on the market, pushing the overall offerings past the 140,000-barrel mark and that doesn’t take into account Talisman Energy’s plans to unload about 20,000 boe.
There is no agreement among analysts whether deal-making favors buyers or sellers, but there is little doubting the desire among income trusts to build up their portfolios.
Anadarko’s Canadian business has been on the block for more than two months and is expected to fetch more than C$5 billion.
ConocoPhillips said in late August it has decided to sell seven packages of non-core oil and gas properties in Alberta and Saskatchewan, representing about 8 percent of its Canadian output and containing 53.7 million boe of proven reserves.
After bids close Sept. 26, the returns could be in the range of C$1.2 billion — money that will help cushion the impact of ConocoPhillips’ US$35 billion takeover of Burlington Resources.
The company said the Canadian properties no longer have a place in its long-term strategic plan.
—Gary Park
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