Canadian E&Ps make gains in high-risk frontiers abroad

Gary Park

For all the setbacks experienced by Canadian-based companies in Kazakhstan, Ecuador and Sudan, there is no sign that they are beating a retreat from high-risk frontiers.

In his 11th annual Canadian Energy Ventures Abroad report, Calgary analyst Ian Doig found that Canadian E&P companies posted a 9 percent increase in production on a crude oil equivalent basis last year.

In summary: 75 Canadian companies had land holdings in 66 countries; 35 of them produced 855,779 barrels per day of crude oil and liquids, down 33,606 bpd from 2002; and 22 companies produced 1.39 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas, an increase of 350 million cubic feet per day from 2002.

A decade earlier, Canadian companies were pumping 135,980 bpd of crude and liquids and 328 million cubic feet per day of gas.

The biggest single loss in 2003 was Talisman Energy’s net 60,000 bpd decline after unloading its stake in the Greater Nile Oil Project for C$1.13 billion.

The five companies posting the largest crude and liquids output were: Petro-Canada, Nexen, PetroKazakhstan, Talisman and EnCana, while the top five in gas volumes were: EnCana, Talisman, Petro-Canada, Nexen and Canadian Natural Resources.