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Gold/Mining/Energy : KERM'S KORNER -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kerm Yerman who wrote (11950)	7/31/1998 5:43:00 AM
From: Kerm Yerman	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 15196

Calgary Sun / Gulf Canada Resources Could Sell Assets CALGARY, July 30 - A portion of Gulf Canada Resources Ltd.'s natural gas assets currently earmarked for a public offering could instead be sold to another company, a Gulf spokesman said on Thursday. "There has been a very high level of interest with people looking at the assets to see if they could make it fit," Gulf's Dennis Martin said from the company's Denver executive office. "If we could get a strategic partner and we could get cash, as long as we meet our objectives, we'll look at other alternatives," he said, declining to name potential acquisitors that have examined the assets. Gulf had hoped to garner proceeds of C$220 million from offering as much as 50 percent of its natural gas pipeline and gas plant, or "midstream," assets to the public as an income trust. The initial public offering was scheduled for some time in the third quarter. However, a sale of the interest to another firm interested in bolstering its operations in the strengthening Canadian gas industry was now a possibility, Martin said. Gulf aims to use proceeds from any deal to help pay down its large debt by a 1998 target of C$1 billion. Last autumn, Gulf used proceeds from its IPO of Gulf Indonesia Resources Ltd. for debt repayment. Martin said one of Gulf's main objectives in any deal was to maintain control over the assets, which currently have about one billion cubic feet a day of gas processing capacity. "We're very positive on Canadian gas. We've aggressively expanded our facilities over the last three years, we've expanded the gathering lines at the plants. We want to keep that aggressive approach to the business," he said. A switch to a sale from public float would follow a similar move last month when Petro-Canada pulled a planned offering of its ICG Propane Inc. unit amid jittery stock markets. Instead of an income trust unit issue, it negotiated a sale of ICG to Superior Propane Inc., Canada's biggest propane distributor. That deal has yet to be finalized.