Abu Dhabi National Targets Canadian Oil and Gas Growth

Crisis A ‘Perfect Storm’

CALGARY – The liquidity crunch roiling global financial markets has created “a perfect storm” for Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. to aggressively expand in the oil and gas sector in Canada in the next 12 months, its chief executive said yesterday.

Peter Barker-Homek said his company, known as TAQA, could spend US$3-billion in the coming year to triple its oil-and-gas production in Canada, to 100,000 barrels a day from 37,000, and its reserves to 500 million barrels, from 140 million.
Longer term, state-controlled TAQA could shop for buys worth up to US$10-billion in Canada, where it would like to become one of the top 10 producers, Mr. Barker-Homek said.

TAQA became the first Middle Eastern company to invest in the Canadian energy sector in May, when it bought Northrock Resources Ltd. for US$2-billion from Houston-based Pogo Producing Co. Mr. Barker-Homek was in Calgary to talk to the 175 employees of TAQA North, as Northrock has been renamed, and close the deal.

While costs of producing oil and gas in Canada are higher than in Abu Dhabi, one of the world’s richest oil producers, TAQA is targeting Canada for expansion because of its political stability and its location next to the United States, a market in which it would like to participate but in which Middle Eastern investment is frustrated by tight rules, he said.

The Financial Post