Conoco Canada Limited, completed the acquisition of outstandingassets associated with the purchase of Petro-Canada’s natural gasliquids (NGL) business, the company said yesterday. The additionincreases Conoco’s total net natural gas liquid production inCanada, the U.S. and Trinidad by 65%, to 105,000 bpd, and triplesnet processing capacity to 3.4 Bcf/d, while reducing per-barreloverhead and operating costs by 24%.

By purchasing Petro-Canada’s liquids assets in March (see DailyGPI, March 3), Conoco gained a 92%operating interest in Petro-Canada’s 2.4 Bcf/d Empress natural gasprocessing plant near Medicine Hat, AB, the 580-mile PetroleumTransmission Co. pipeline (PTC), six related pipeline terminals and astorage facility. The Empress plant has an NGL production capacity of48,000 bpd.

The outstanding assets that were just completed included small,non-operating interests a propane fractionator and two pipelines.The price of the additional asset acquisitions was not disclosed.

Through the Petro-Canada agreement, Conoco will operate andmanage Petro-Canada’s NGL wholesale supply and marketingoperations, and employ about 140 of Petro-Canada’s NGL-relatedemployees in Calgary, the Empress plant, PTC pipeline system andfield offices in Tulsa and Sarnia, Ontario.

The acquisition includes major agreements for Conoco to provideall NGL services for Petro-Canada’s upstream operations in WesternCanada and for Petro-Canada’s refineries in Edmonton, AB, Oakville,ON and Montreal, PQ.

©Copyright 2000 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.