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BP Amoco’s new Canadian chief Tim Holt puts spotlight on Arctic Former BP Exploration (Alaska) executive says his Alaska experience will help create a “winning combination” to deliver ANS gas to Lower 48 Gary Park PNA Contributing Canadian Correspondent
The beating Arctic pulse has quickened with the arrival of Tim Holt to take over BP Amoco’s Canadian operations.
On Holt’s appointment, the former BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. executive said BP Amoco Canada will evaluate what role it might take in a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline from the North Slope along the Mackenzie River Valley to southern U.S. markets.
“Not only is Canadian gas production one of the top focus areas for BP Amoco’s upstream business, but the company has endorsed a leadership position” for assessing such a pipeline, Holt said.
“I am confident the depth of experience I bring from the Alaska side (13 years working in all segments of the company’s Alaska operations), coupled with the expertise of our Canadian organization, will create a winning combination for delivering northern gas to market.”
But he said the success of any pipeline “clearly hinges on our relationships with the people, governments and potential partners all along the pipeline route.”
A company spokeswoman said that despite rising gas demand in key U.S. markets there is no deadline for a BP Amoco decision, adding that all proposals now on the table will be examined.
She noted that BP Amoco is also studying projects in Alaska, including the separate gas-to-liquids project that has attracted the interest of ExxonMobil, ARCO and South Africa’s Sasol as they push for a construction start within five years.
Projects not mutually exclusive The gas-to-liquids venture in Alaska and gas pipeline through Canada are not “mutually exclusive,” given that the North Slope has 30 trillion cubic feet of stranded reserves and currently injects 6 billion cubic feet per day from daily production of 7 billion cubic feet, the spokeswoman said.
Peter Linder, an analyst with Harris Partners in Calgary and former BP Amoco employee, said the North is important to BP Amoco. He viewed Holt’s statement as evidence the company will “very likely exploit its significant northern assets base, particularly in the Mackenzie Delta ... and will look to couple it with Prudhoe Bay.”
Holt said the Canadian unit has emerged from a year of asset disposals in Western Canada’s conventional fields with a clear mandate for expansion in gas production, sales and derivatives.
Output in Western Canada, because of the asset sales, declined last year — oil to 56,000 barrels per day from 68,000 and gas to 689 million cubic feet per day from 767 million.
“Canada is significant because it is one of the few places in the company where all of our business streams are represented,” Holt said. “Thus we have a unique opportunity to deliver an integrated performance standard that challenges the world’s best companies.”
Multiple pipeline proposals Of the Arctic pipeline proposals up for evaluation, Foothills Pipe Lines already has long-standing U.S. and Canadian approvals for the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System from the North Slope, down Alaska, across the central Yukon and connecting in central Alberta with its operating pipelines to the U.S. Midwest, Pacific Northwest and California.
TransCanada PipeLines, which owns 50 percent of Foothills, is also looking at connecting Canadian and Alaska gas with a decision on a project expected within 12 months.
In the Canadian North, four majors with license holdings and 9 trillion cubic feet of established gas reserves in the Mackenzie Delta — Imperial Oil, Gulf Canada Resources, Shell Canada and Mobil Oil Canada — are also working on a feasibility study to be completed later this year.
The field has also been joined in recent months by Houston-based Arctic Resources with an C$8 billion plan to carry gas from the North Slope, under the Beaufort Sea and down the Mackenzie, linking up with established routes to the Lower 48. Those sponsors are preparing to file preliminary regulatory applications this year.
As well, Canada’s three largest pipelines — TransCanada, Enbridge and Westcoast Energy — have said they are interested in being partners in any pipeline.
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