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Canadian Natural eyes Murphy assets; chasing deal believed to include 50% of Ladyfern
Gary Park Petroleum News Calgary correspondent
Canadian Natural Resources has apparently challenged those with right of first refusal to arm wrestle over Murphy Oil natural gas assets by bidding C$260 million for the Murphy properties that were unaccounted for April 7 when Pengrowth Energy Trust made a C$550 million acquisition.
Commonly known as CNQ, Canadian Natural will know within about a month whether it has landed the deal, Investor Relations Director Corey Bieber told the Financial Post, saying the Murphy assets “fit like a glove” with CNQ’s current holdings. Not clear what reserves involved It is not clear what reserves and production are involved, nor the location of the properties. Petroleum News was unable to contact Bieber before deadline.
However, when Murphy put its conventional Western Canada assets on the block four months ago, it said the package included reserves of 46 million barrels of oil equivalent, including light oil, heavy oil and natural gas, and production of 20,000 boe/d.
Mindy West, a spokeswoman for Murphy, told Petroleum News April 15 that her company is only able to disclose that proceeds from the sale of most of its Western Canadian assets amounted to C$829.5 million.
She said the buyers did not want to release their identities. However, Pengrowth said it had purchased 43.6 million boe of Murphy reserves with output of 15,500 boe/d. Muyrphy’s piece of once-prolific Ladyferm might be part of deal The deal CNQ is reported to be pursuing is believed to include Murphy’s 50 percent interest in the once-prolific Ladyfern field in northeastern British Columbia — a discovery that held estimated reserves of 750 billion to 1 trillion cubic feet, hit peak output of 665 million cubic feet per day two years ago and has since tumbled to well under 200 million cubic feet per day.
Murphy President Harvey Doer expressed frustration in late 2002 that his firm had been unable to work out an agreement with CNQ and EnCana to slow production in an effort to prolong Ladyfern’s operating life and improved profit margins.
CNQ Chief Operating Officer Steve Laut responded at the time that Ladyfern’s wells watered out faster than expected, but the play remained a “very, very good prospect.”
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