Calgary

Natural gas infrastructure “presents significant opportunities” in the long-term, but not so much today, TransCanada Corp. CEO Russ Girling said Tuesday.

The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has cleared the acquisition of Calgary-based Nexen Inc. by CNOOC Ltd., a unit of state-controlled China National Offshore Oil Co., giving the deal all the approvals it needs to close, Nexen said Tuesday.

Calgary-based AltaGas Ltd. and Japan’s Idemitsu Kosan Co. Ltd. have formed a joint venture to pursue deals to export liquefied Canadian gas to Asian markets, including the development of natural gas liquefaction facilities.

Tervita Corp., a Calgary-based environmental and energy services company, has been selected to build and operate a facility in Carroll County, OH, to treat Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s produced and tophole drilling water from its Utica Shale operations, the companies said.

As part of a continuing effort to stretch Bakken and western Canadian oil supplies into new markets, Calgary-based Enbridge Inc. on Thursday outlined a $6.2 billion, four-year effort to expand several of its pipelines to access light oil markets in the eastern United States and Canada.

CNOOC Ltd. has reportedly agreed to management and employment conditions set by the Canadian government as prerequisites to its proposed C$15.1 billion takeover bid for Calgary-based oil and gas producer Nexen Inc. Two sources familiar with the matter said CNOOC, an arm of state-controlled China National Offshore Oil Co., has agreed to reserve at least half of Nexen’s board and management positions for Canadians, along with other conditions recently requested by Alberta Premier Alison Redford, Bloomberg reported. Shareholders of Nexen voted 99% in favor of accepting CNOOC’s takeover offer (see Daily GPI, Sept. 21). But Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has repeatedly cautioned North American money managers against assuming the bid is a done deal, and some polls indicate that a majority of Canadians oppose the deal. The final Canadian say is in the hands of the federal cabinet under the national Foreign Investment Review Act, which gives ministers wide discretion under a “benefits test” for big corporate deals.

ExxonMobil Corp. last week offered US$3.14 billion to buy Celtic Exploration Ltd., a Calgary producer with a rich array of unconventional acreage spread across the Montney and Duvernay shales, as well as leaseholds in other formations in Alberta (AB) and British Columbia (BC). The offer has a cash value of about $2.6 billion, excluding debt.

ExxonMobil Corp. agreed Wednesday to buy Calgary’s Celtic Exploration Ltd., a producer with a basket of natural gas-rich unconventional property in the Montney and Duvernay shales, for an estimated US$3.14 billion, including debt. The deal has a cash value of about $2.6 billion.

Canadians are generally opposed to the takeover of Calgary-based Nexen Inc. by China’s CNOOC Ltd., an arm of state-controlled China National Offshore Oil Co., according to a new opinion poll that showed practically four-in-five respondents believe foreign governments should not be able to control resources on Canadian soil.