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Is Suncor planning to stay in Alaska?
Eric Lidji For Petroleum News
Suncor Energy’s plans for the Netherlands may signals its intentions for Alaska.
The Canadian company announced on June 15 that it planned to sell all of the offshore assets in the Dutch North Sea that it picked up in its acquisition of Petro-Canada in March 2009.
The actual sale itself doesn’t involve Alaska assets, but in a statement announcing the sale, Suncor wrote, “As part of its strategic business alignment, Suncor is continuing with plans to divest of a number of non-core assets. Announced sales to date include all oil and gas producing assets in the United States Rockies, non-core natural gas properties in Western Canada and all Trinidad and Tobago assets. Remaining proposed divestments include certain natural gas assets in Western Canada and non-core North Sea assets.”
That list does not include Alaska, where Suncor picked up Petro-Canada’s stake of almost 300,000 acres spread across the Brooks Range foothills and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. In the foothills, Suncor is now a partner with BG and operator Anadarko Petroleum. In NPR-A, Suncor is now a partner with FEX, a subsidiary of Talisman.
Gas assets in review In September 2009, Suncor announced plans to divest much of its natural gas assets by the end of 2010. That didn’t bode well for Alaska, especially the gas prone foothills where Petro-Canada partnered on the first gas exploration drilling in northern Alaska.
Suncor said it would compile a list of gas assets facing the chopping block within a few months, but as of late May 2010, Suncor spokesman Dany Laferrière said, “We’re still reviewing all our options and we haven’t made a final decision as to our assets up there.”
Even with the recent announcement, significant questions remain about the future of Suncor’s portfolio in Alaska. Even though Suncor is focusing on oil sands, the company plans to use natural gas production as “a natural price hedge against the cost of energy consumption” at oil sands operations, according to a May 2010 investor presentation.
Alaska natural gas, however, is stranded in the state until a major pipeline is built.
And some issues facing Suncor’s assets are out of its control. In March 2010, Talisman said it hoped to sell more than 1 million net acres it holds in NPR-A and the foothills.
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