PanCanadian Energy Corp., the new publicly traded parent of PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd., began trading shares Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PCX and on The Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol PCE. CEO David Tuer said the Calgary-base company has more than 254 million shares trading on the two North American exchanges. PanCanadian Energy’s core areas are the Western Basin, including land in Western Canada and the United States, the Gulf of Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the East Coast of Canada with its Deep Panuke discovery.

Calgary-based Nexen Inc. is acquiring the interests in four leases in the Vermilion Block 76 Field for US$39.7 million from an undisclosed seller. Nexen will have a 100% interest in the leases and will be the operator. Vermilion Block 76 Field is located in 35 feet of water approximately 70 miles southwest of Lafayette, LA. The interests include 17,500 net acres and are currently producing 17 MMcf/d and 90 bbl/d. Nexen estimates the proved reserves of the leases to be 37.2 Bcfe (31 Bcfe net of royalties). Nexen CEO Charlie Fischer said the field is producing “just four of 24 productive horizons,” and added the company can increase recoverable reserves and production within the next three years by adding compression, new wells and recompletions of existing wells. “This is our fourth property acquisition in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico since 1995,” said Fischer. “These deals have all been very successful because we’ve been able to capture the upside identified in our evaluations and deliver low-cost production and reserve additions. Exploiting shallow-water Gulf Coast assets is one of our strengths, and Vermilion Block 76 Field will be a core asset of our U.S. operations.” Nexen is an independent, global energy and chemicals company with core natural gas and oil activities in the United States, Yemen, Canada, Nigeria, Australia, Colombia and Indonesia.

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