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Gold/Mining/Energy : Lundin Oil (LOILY, LOILB Sweden) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Greywolf who wrote (2486)	6/5/2001 8:04:44 PM
From: Greywolf	Respond to of 2742

US player's Canadian focus fully on gas Marathon letting oil assets go Upstream 23:57 GMT Not really anything to do with Lundin Oil, one would think.... Yet there are similar factors here and there.. Houston-based USX-Marathon Group has quietly put almost all its Canadian oil assets on the block as the big oil company shifts its focus to gas exploration and production in western Canada and offshore Nova Scotia. The Marathon assets up for sale, consisting of 10 light oil and non-core natural gas properties in Alberta and north-east British Columbia, two heavy oil projects in Saskatchewan as well as oil sands leases, are likely to be worth more than C$500 million ($327 million), analysts speculated on Tuesday. They produce about 15,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. Including a sale in April of properties in south-eastern Saskatchewan, Marathon will have sold about a third of its overall Canadian production by the time the deals are done, Marathon Canada president Bob Shepherd said. "What we're really doing here is related to cleaning up the Canadian asset base to get focused on a gas business, and from the growth perspective, more a westward and northward focus (in western Canada)," Shepherd told Reuters. Marathon is also one of a host of major oil companies mounting a big gas exploration push off the Nova Scotia coast, site of the huge producing Sable project and another big field now being developed by PanCanadian Petroleum. Marathon, which is in the process of being split from USX-US Steel Group, acquired most of its Canadian assets just three years ago when it bought Tarragon Oil & Gas for C$1.1 billion. The sale comes at a time when US oil companies have launched a frenzied shopping spree for western Canadian energy assets, although the target has been high-priced gas. It follows a similar $490 million sale of Alberta properties last year by rival Phillips Petroleum, which said it saw bigger and better opportunities elsewhere in the world. Marathon Canada expects to be producing about 31,000 boe a day after it strikes deals, down from about 45,500 boe, Shepherd said. Calgary-based oil and gas property broker Waterous & Co. is currently marketing the two big packages of Marathon assets. One includes 10 properties in north-east British Columbia and northern and southern Alberta producing about 4000 barrels of oil and gas liquids and 28 million cubic feet of gas a day. These include production in such regions as Kaybob, Red Earth, Sturgeon Lake and Jumpbush. They have proven reserves totalling 11 million barrels of oil and gas liquids and 68 billion cubic feet of gas. The other package comprises Marathon's Bolney and Edam heavy oil properties in western Saskatchewan, currently pumping out about 6,100 barrels a day. Reserves at the two heavy oil properties are pegged at 24.2 million barrels. The package also includes an undeveloped oil sands lease called Saleski, located southwest of the booming oil sands hub of Fort McMurray in northeastern Alberta. Marathon opened data rooms in Calgary in May and has set bid deadlines of 21 June for the light oil assets and 28 June for the heavy oil operations. Marathon shares in New York ended Tuesday up 36 cents at $33.08.