Chevron Canada closes bids on Western Canadian assets

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary correspondent

Chevron Canada Resources is sitting on the answers that could close the door on its role in Western Canada’s conventional oil and gas properties.

One of the pioneers in developing the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, the unit of ChevronTexaco has received bids for assets in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and the Northwest Territories that produced 44,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2003.

There was heavy interest in the properties, but no date has been set for disclosing the successful bidders, Chevron Canada spokesman Dave Pommer told Petroleum News. The company has indicated it is ready to hold on to assets that do not attract an acceptable offer.

Chevron Canada has excluded from the sale list its 20 percent stake in Shell Canada’s Athabasca oil sands project, its 26.9 percent of the Hibernia oil project and its 28 percent operator role in the stalled Hebron-Ben Nevis project, both of them offshore Newfoundland, and its exploration of the Mackenzie Delta.

The company is joining Murphy Oil and El Paso as the latest U.S. subsidiaries to unload their conventional holdings in Western Canada, while EnCana plans to divest an additional 40,000-80,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of oil and gas production for up to C$1.5 billion, to help offset the US$2.7 billion purchase of Tom Brown.