CNOOC to Acquire Canadian Oil-Producer Nexen
This is a big deal and sets a precedent for Chinese investment in Canadian oil and gas, if only for its size. Guess Harper’s get close to China policy for trade and investment is paying off. But, how many Chinese investments of such magnitude will Canada allow? And, you can expect a backlash from China bashers and radical environmentalists.
http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-cnooc-says-buy-canadas-nexen-15-1-103111969–finance.html?_esi=1
Some key facts about Nexen.
– Nexen is Canada’s sixth-largest independent oil explorer and producer, and the 10th biggest energy company by market capitalization in the energy sector of the Toronto stock exchange, based on Friday’s closing price.
– As of 2011, Nexen had about 2.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent of proved and probable reserves.
– The company started in Western Canada as a unit of Occidental Petroleum Corp, but is now fully independent. It operates in the Gulf of Mexico, Colombia, the North Sea, Yemen, and offshore West Africa. Its assets include conventional oil and gas, oil sands and shale gas.
– Nexen produced 207,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in 2011, including about 45,000 boe/d in the Athabasca oil sands region in the Canadian province of Alberta, where it has stakes in the Long Lake and Syncrude Canada projects.
– Nexen is the second largest oil producer in the North Sea, where it operates the Buzzard platform. In 2011, its share of Buzzard production was 62,400 boe/d. In the Gulf of Mexico, Nexen’s 2011 share was 22,600 boe/d.
– Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, and traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, Nexen has about 3,000 employees, including about 2,000 in Canada, 500 in the United Kingdom and 330 in the United States.
– Nexen’s market capitalization was C$9.15 billion as of Friday’s close.
– Interim Chief Executive Kevin Reinhart took over in January, and shares rose on hopes he could fix costly operational problems that have plagued the company’s Long Lake oil sands project and its North Sea operations.
– Some analysts are impressed with Reinhart’s progress, but shares have been held back by the weak outlook for oil prices.
Source: Company filings, company website, Thomson Reuters data.