|
Oil Patch Insider
Shell Canada on Anadarko Petroleum�s �buyers� list� Shell Canada is the latest company to find itself on the list of rumored buyers of Anadarko assets.
An industry source told the Financial Post that Shell Canada has been asked to put a price on Anadarko�s Canadian assets as part of a much larger deal that would see Royal Dutch/Shell buy all of the Houston-based independent.
Meanwhile, Anadarko is happily riding the takeover speculation, with Chief Executive Officer Bob Allison telling a New York conference Sept. 3 that his firm is having a �great year� and now claims an enterprise value of US$17 billion.
But the events this year suggest not all is well: Anadarko has stripped 400 jobs or 10.5 percent of its staff and closed two offices to save $100 million a year; eliminated about 56 of its U.S. land rigs; and lowered its production forecasts and projected growth for 2004.
In the process, Italy�s Eni has held informal talks with Anadarko, while Devon Energy has figured prominently on the list of takeover candidates.
The special appeal for Shell Canada would be Anadarko�s prized exploration properties in northeastern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Mackenzie Delta.
If those properties came on the market, Shell Canada would likely find itself in a bidding war with EnCana and Talisman Energy, which have joint-venture agreements with Anadarko.
In the Northwest Territories, Anadarko has been the most active operator this year in the Fort Liard area, drilling nine winter wells and filing four significant discovery applications.
In the Delta, Anadarko holds 400,000 net acres, acquired in its March 2001 takeover of Berkley Petroleum.
The most significant acreage consists of two onshore blocks adjacent to ConocoPhillips� 1.8 trillion cubic foot Parsons Lake field. It also holds an exploration license immediately northwest of the 3 tcf Taglu field owned by Imperial Oil.
NIED begins worldwide marketing of mobile Arctic drilling rig NIED LLC has begun worldwide marketing of its new Arctic Millennium, a mobile Arctic drilling rig formerly called the light automated drilling system or LADS. (See article in June 8 Petroleum News.)
�We have completed the mobile Arctic drilling rig and are in the process of worldwide marketing. I would like to invite you to visit our web page www.niedi.com,� Conrad Perry, NIED project manager, wrote Petroleum News in late August.
NIED is a subsidiary of N-I Energy Development.
TOTE�s M.V. North Star arrives in Anchorage Totem Ocean Trailer Express, TOTE, welcomed the M.V. North Star to the Port of Anchorage Sept. 9.
The M.V. North Star is the second of the new Orca class ships to come into the Alaska market, TOTE said. The first, the M.V. Midnight Sun, was introduced in April.
TOTE said it is also introducing Eileen Lammers, the first Alaska Native woman to graduate from the Seafarers International Union�s maritime training apprenticeship program in Piney Point, Md.
Lammers, 20, is from Ketchikan and is a general utilities deck and engine hand aboard the ship. Several years ago, TOTE said, it helped start the Alaskans for Alaska Jobs in Transportation to recruit residents for the Seafarers International Union program. Lammers is a graduate of that program. Williams� Prier one of Top 100 Women in Energy Williams Alaska Petroleum Inc. President Diane Prier was named among the top 100 women in the energy industry, according to the results of Rader Energy�s Key Women in Energy-Americas 2003 awards program.
A global panel of energy industry experts selected Prier from more than 325 nominations across 38 nations.
Rader Energy founder, Linda Rader, says the honors program identifies and recognizes individual performance that results in business excellence. The awards recognize the achievements and contributions of women across the energy sector.
�The program is unique in that honors cross country borders, nationalities, private/public sector organizations, areas of expertise and all layers of management,� said Rader. Awards were presented at the Edison Electric Institute in Washington, D.C. Prier became president of Williams� Alaska business unit in North Pole in 2001. Williams said under Prier operations management �resulted in efficiency and customer service improvements. The North Pole refinery set production, shipping and sales records in 2002� despite the pending sale of the Alaska refining assets that was announced by Williams in June of 2002.
Correction: Jim Palmer working with Pioneer Resources, not Total
In last week�s Oil Patch Insider we mistakenly reported that consultant Jim Palmer�s first client after he left BP Exploration (Alaska) was Total, at that time TotalFinaElf.
We got it wrong: Pioneer Natural Resources Co., a Dallas-based independent that drilled three exploration wells in the shallow waters of the Beaufort Sea last winter, was Palmer�s first client. Total is not, and has never been, a client of the Anchorage-based Palmer Group.
Oil Patch Insider is compiled by Paula Easley and Kay Cashman with news coming from a variety of sources. If you have a news tip or press release for Oil Patch Insider, please call (907) 245-2297, fax (907) 522-9583, or email [email protected].
| 