A Canadian affiliate had already made its mark, spending more than C$100 million on exploration in 2005, and planning a more ambitious program for 2006, along with establishing a foothold in the Northwest Territories.

The information was based on interviews with BG Canada Exploration and Production President Glenn McNamara who said the company’s frontier strategy could eventually extend from the Northwest Territories to Alaska and Canada’s East Coast.

McNamara’s prediction proved true.

On Feb. 7, BG Group formally announced that its wholly owned, and newly formed, subsidiary BG Alaska E&P Inc. had signed a participation agreement with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Petro-Canada (Alaska) Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Calgary-based Petro-Canada, “for a 33.33 percent equity share in 2.1 million acres of land in the Foothills area of the Alaskan North Slope,” commonly referred to as the Brooks Range Foothills.

Each partner now owns a one-third working interest in the acreage and Anadarko will serve as operator, the company said.

BG’s Alaska subsidiary will manage its North Slope assets from Calgary, “leveraging the technical capabilities we have developed since we commenced our operations there,” said Martin Houston, BG executive vice president and managing director, North America, Caribbean and Global LNG.

The agreement became effective Jan. 26 and is subject to the relevant approvals of the State of Alaska and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, BG said.

“This agreement builds on our existing North American E&P business in Canada and creates the potential for increasing BG’s natural gas supply position into the U.S. gas market, which is underpinned by our LNG importation business,” Houston said.

Please see full story in Feb. 12 issue of Petroleum News.