First Calgary Petroleums announced a natural gas find in Algeria on Dec. 8 and got shunted to the inside pages of Canada’s business sections.
The same day Shell Canada announced a gas discovery in west-central Alberta and, in the words of one Canadian newspaper columnist, it was “as if the company had found an image of Jesus on a rock structure 5,000 meters below the surface.”
First Calgary, once a penny stock and now trading at over C$18 a share, said the flow rate from its well in Algeria was 73,000 million cubic feet per day, compared with 30 million from Shell’s discovery.
It also adds momentum to First Calgary’s corporate strategic review that is widely expected to end in a takeover of the Calgary-based company, which now has a market value of C$3.3 billion based on a string of successes in Algeria.
The Financial Times newspaper in London floated the latest rumor Dec. 6 when it reported that Statoil, Norway’s largest oil company, was stalking First Calgary as its primary quarry to expand its reach into North Africa and the Middle East.
First Calgary has indicated that a sale is necessary to develop its Algerian proven, probable and possible reserves that now tally about 7 trillion cubic feet. A reserves update is expected later this month.
Its Algerian discoveries have tested at cumulative flow rates of almost 600 million cubic feet per day of gas and 40,000 barrels per day of oil — the sort of numbers Shell Canada or any other Canadian major would happily settle for.
Sempra back in Alaska North Slope gas pipeline race with LNG proposal
Sempra Energy is back in the race for Alaska North Slope natural gas.
Last year the San Diego-based parent of San Diego Gas and Electric and Southern California Gas Co. was talking to the Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority about Alaska liquefied natural gas for an LNG receiving facility Sempra has in the works in Baja California. Sempra subsequently found other sources of LNG that could deliver sooner.
Sempra is now working with the Alaska Gas Pipeline Authority and is purported to be talking about a lot more than buying LNG.
Sempra spokeswoman Jennifer Andrews could only confirm Dec. 16 that Sempra Energy has signed a development agreement with the Alaska Gas Pipeline Authority to assist in studying an Alaska gas pipeline project. She said the company expects to have an announcement about the agreement before the end of the year.
The project on the table is supposed to be huge: a 48-inch gas pipeline that would carry 4.2 billion cubic feet a day from the North Slope, a liquefaction facility at Valdez with LNG going to the West Coast and a spur line to Cook Inlet.
Sempra is said to have told state of Alaska officials in mid-December that the company has obtained project permits formerly held by Yukon Pacific Corp., and to be proposing to buy natural gas from the producers on the North Slope.
Dave MacDowell, BP Exploration (Alaska)’s gas project spokesman, told Petroleum News Dec. 16: “I’m not familiar with the Sempra proposal; we remain focused on the project we feel offers the most promise for Alaska’s North Slope gas, and that is a pipeline project to serve the North American market.”
ConocoPhillips Alaska spokeswoman Dawn Patience said, “We have not seen any proposal from Sempra. However alternatives such as gas to liquids and liquefied natural gas have been reviewed a number of times and found to not be competitive with a pipeline to the Lower 48.
“Developing Alaska’s natural gas through a pipeline from the Alaska North Slope to the Lower 48 continues to be a top priority for ConocoPhillips. We are encouraged by the progress being made in our negotiations under the Stranded Gas Development Act with the state. We hope the Alaska Legislature will help us move forward with the project by supporting the fiscal contract presented to it by the administration and the sponsor group.”
