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Gold/Mining/Energy : Tusk Energy (TKE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: grayhairs who wrote (534)	6/2/1998 6:25:00 PM
From: kingfisher	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1207

Yes Grayhairs I am referring to Sudsbury's Slag Heaps!Speaking of slag heaps dont you wish you had been on the opposite side of the transaction from the rube trading natural gas futures for Centra Gas Manitoba.Apparently the gentleman lost $46million trading natural gas futures and the ratepayers in Manitoba will have to cough up a 3% increase in rates for this genius's mistake. I have pasted an article of interest because Apache is mentioned investing in Canada [ Business \| US Market \| Industry \| IPO \| S&P \| International \| PRNews \| BizWire \| Finance Home ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Monday June 1, 8:46 pm Eastern Time U.S. oil companies on Canadian shopping spree By Jeffrey Jones CALGARY, Alberta, June 1 (Reuters) - U.S. energy companies have kicked off a multibillion-dollar shopping spree for Canadian companies, and analysts say conditions are ripe for the cross-border takeover binge to continue. Driven by myriad drilling opportunities in western Canada ahead of projected strong natural gas prices north of the border, many U.S. companies said they were beating the bushes in downtown Calgary for exploration and production assets. The round of deals in the Canadian energy sector -- christened the ''merger macarena'' by industry executives -- has been bolstered by falling oil prices, weak Canadian corporate earnings and the languishing value of the Canadian dollar. ''I would see no reason for it to end,'' said Robert Hinckley, who follows Canadian oil companies for Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. in New York. ''The exchange rate continues to work in their favor, and I think the longer we have low oil prices the more desperate some of these companies (in Canada) become.'' On Friday, USX-Marathon Group's (MRO - news) Houston-based energy unit launched a C$1.1-billion ($750 million) friendly takeover of Tarragon Oil & Gas Ltd. (TN.TO - news), which just last month acquired most of El Segundo, Calif.-based Unocal Corp.'s (UCL - news) Canadian assets. Marathon's offer followed hard on the heels of recent takeovers of Canadian oil companies by Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (PXD - news) of Irving, Texas; Fort Worth, Texas-based Union Pacific Resources Group Inc. (UPR - news); and Dominion Resources Inc. of Richmond, Va. (D - news) Coastal Corp. (CGP - news), a partner in the proposed Alliance natural gas pipeline project, which is slated to ship 1.3 billion cubic feet of gas a day to Chicago from northern Canada in 2000, is also on the hunt for Canadian gas assets. ''We are very interested in exploration and production operations in British Columbia. We want to put product into the Alliance Pipeline, and it could be outright acquisitions or old-fashioned leases,'' said a spokeswoman for the Houston-based company. Several new pipelines or expansions are planned to be completed up to the year 2000. They are aimed at meeting North American gas demand growth that consultants Arthur Andersen and Cambridge Energy Research Associates said last week could total 30-40 percent over the next 15 years. Besides the pipelines, U.S. oil companies are attracted by plentiful natural gas drilling prospects compared with the onshore United States, as well as arbitrage opportunities between Canadian and U.S. gas prices, said Scott Inglis, an analyst with Canadian brokerage FirstEnergy Capital Corp. Although companies have drilled in western Canada for over 80 years, the region is still far less developed than the United States, where rich new gas reserves have been elusive. Analysts say the U.S. independents need bigger and bigger fields to stay ahead of the game. One of Canada's hottest exploration areas is the Peace River Arch region of northern British Columbia and Alberta, where wells testing at rates of more than 20 million cubic feet a day are increasingly commonplace. ''As well as the sufficient pipeline capacity and narrowing price differentials between the U.S. and Canada, we have another set of criteria -- to have sufficient critical mass to generate $100 million in cash flow from our business units,'' said Lisa Floyd, head of business development for Houston-based Apache Corp. (APA - news), which has Canadian operations and is scouting for more. Houston's Burlington Resources Inc. (BR - news) wants to expand its three main production areas to five, and a spokesman for the company said odds were strong that Canada would be part of that. Another Houston-based company -- Ocean Energy Inc. (OEI - news), which recently bought U.S. independent United Meridian -- is also on the hunt in Canada. ''We have holdings in western Canada and plan to grow primarily through acquisitions and exploitation, with some exploration,'' a spokesman for Ocean said. Despite the exploration potential U.S. companies are coveting, many Canadian companies have had their stock prices slashed since the beginning of the year because of investor jitters over weakening cash flows due to depressed oil prices. Poor first-quarter results, and expectations for more of the same in the second quarter, have disillusioned many shareholders, and analysts say they may push for their companies to be auctioned off or even support hostile takeover attempts. Calgary-based Summit Resources Ltd. (SUI.TO - news), a debt-hobbled company with large tracts of exploration lands in northeastern British Columbia, was placed on the block last week. Other weakened firms viewed as vulnerable to takeovers include Northstar Energy Corp. (NEN.TO - news), Crestar Energy Inc. (CRS.TO - news), Newport Petroleum Corp. (NPP.TO - news) and Rigel Energy Corp. (RJL.TO - news), observers said. All are based in Calgary. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ More Quotes and News: Apache Corp (NYSE:APA - news)Burlington Resources Inc (NYSE:BR - news)Coastal Corp (NYSE:CGP - news)Crestar Energy Inc (Toronto:CRS.TO - news)Dominion Resources Inc (NYSE:D - news)Newport Petroleum Corp (Toronto:NPP.TO - news)Northstar Energy Corp (Toronto:NEN.TO - news)Ocean Energy Inc (NYSE:OEI - news)Pioneer Natural Resources Co (NYSE:PXD - news)Rigel Energy Corp (Toronto:RJL.TO - news)Summit Resources Ltd (Toronto:SUI.TO - news)Tarragon Oil & Gas Ltd (Toronto:TN.TO - news)Union Pacific Resource Group Inc (NYSE:UPR - news)Unocal Corp (NYSE:UCL - news)USX Corp (NYSE:MRO - news) Related News Categories: US Market News ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Help ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright c 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon See our Important Disclaimers and Legal Information. Questions or Comments? Take Care, Richard