Cashing in and shipping out

What dominated Canada's petroleum marketplace from the mid-1990s to 2001, as US-based firms rounded up gas properties at a feverish rate, has turned into a stampede out of the region. WJ Simpson reports

MAJOR US players such as Marathon Oil, El Paso, Murphy Oil, ChevronTexaco, Vintage Petroleum, Anadarko Petroleum and Calpine are unloading assets in Canada, cashing in while energy prices remain high. They have struggled to capitalise on their purchases in the challenging Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) and are being lured away by what they see as better global prospects. Over the last year, purchases worth C$3.2bn ($2.4bn) have been concluded and Raymond James, a financial services firm, estimates the sell-off could add another C$5.3bn this year, not counting C$2bn in assets being privately marketed. Don Short, a Raymond James oil and gas analyst, said in a June report to clients th