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Report: Canadian E&Ps cover global bases Ian Doig finds international output from Canadian companies up 10 percent on a crude oil equivalent basis from 2003 to 2004 Gary Park Petroleum News Canadian Correspondent
As Canadian E&P companies venture beyond their domestic frontiers, to both spread their investment risks and take advantage of cheaper finding and development costs, their international spending and production claims a growing share of their operations.
The 13th annual Canadian Energy Ventures Abroad report by frontier analyst Ian Doig reported a 10 percent hike on a crude oil equivalent basis in 2004 from 2003.
Crude oil and natural gas liquids posted only a modest 1.8 percent gain, with 42 companies pumping 905,605 barrels per day in 31 countries.
But natural gas logged an impressive 39.7 percent increase to 1.935 billion cubic feet per day, up 550 million cubic feet per day.
A decade ago Canadian companies had global output of just 136,000 bpd of oil and liquids and 328 million cubic feet per day of gas.
The startling number was that overseas operations were the equivalent of 21 percent of domestic Canadian production, while companies spent 24 percent of their capital budgets outside Canada.
Doig said the ventures were the catalyst for 15 percent of Alberta’s petroleum workforce being assigned to international production projects, reinforcing a view that the province is quietly becoming an international oil and gas center. EnCana only significant pullback The only significant pullback from some foreign fields has been by EnCana, which unloaded its United Kingdom holdings to Nexen, and expects a deal later this year to sell its Ecuador properties which produce 93,000 bpd and could fetch over US$2 billion. But the big independent has directed some of the proceeds from its US$8 billion in divestitures since early 2002 into acquiring additional production in the U.S. Rocky Mountain region.
The five Canadian companies with the largest international crude oil and liquids production in 2004 were: Talisman Energy, Petro-Canada, PetroKazakhstan, Nexen and EnCana. Topping the list of producing countries were: the United Kingdom North Sea, Kazakhstan, Yemen, Syria and Ecuador.
The dominant gas producers were: EnCana, Talisman, Petro-Canada, Nexen and Canadian Natural Resources, with the five major producing regions being: United States, United Kingdom North Sera, Indonesia, Malaysia/Vietnam and Dutch North Sea.
Doig’s 185-page report includes data on 126 Canadian E&P, pipeline, drilling and service companies with operations in 125 countries.
Other industry sources have estimated that Canada’s oil and gas industry spent C$10.21 billion on operations and acquisitions last year outside its domestic base, closing in on one-quarter of the sector’s record spending of C$46 billion.
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