Burlington raises bar on Canadian spending

Gary Park

Petroleum News Calgary Correspondent

Canada will consume about half of Burlington Resources’ $1.5 billion budget in 2004, up from about 45 percent this year.

The Houston-based company has earmarked $741 million for Canada, including $543 million on development work, $165 million for exploration, $26 million on plants and pipelines and $7 million in other areas.

From this year’s total of $695 million, Burlington assigned $444 million to development and $213 million to exploration, with the rest on plants, pipelines and other items.

With 85 percent of Burlington’s total capital budget directed at North America, the bulk will go to natural gas development in the Rocky Mountain fairway of the United States and Canada, up from 75 percent this year, while international ventures will drop to 15 percent from 25 percent.

Bobby Shackouls, chairman, president and chief operating officer, said the flat budget reflects Burlington’s philosophy of “maintaining consistent spending throughout commodity price cycles, rather than ramping activity up and down.”