Canadian Natural open to investing in new refining capacity
Published Wednesday November 12th, 2008
Exploration Firm has no particular size preference when it comes to potential acquisition targets
CALGARY - Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (TSX:CNQ) sees possible opportunities next year to gobble up some of its financially weaker peers, a vice-chairman of the company's board said Tuesday.
"There will be opportunities to acquire others that don't have the same flexibility on the balance sheet, don't have the same underlying bank lines, don't have the same ability to access credit markets in the private or public debt markets," Murray Edwards said at Canadian Natural's investor day in Calgary.
Fellow vice-chairman John Langille told reporters later that Canadian Natural has no particular size preference when it comes to any potential acquisition target.
"I don't think there's any magic number that would be in our criteria," he said.
"We tend to not look at necessarily the headline number. It's more what kind of assets are we buying and how do they fit in with our core areas and do they provide us with the opportunity to create more value?"
Langille did say, however, that Canadian Natural has never been a "big E exploration company" and that any acquisitions would likely be more "exploitation based."
Entering the U.S. shale gas scene would also not be a likely scenario, since Canadian Natural already has substantial land holdings in northeastern B.C., which is believed to hold an enormous amount of untapped natural gas.
Edwards said the current tight market conditions, which have made it hard for many oil and gas producers to finance new projects, will likely last "a year plus."
He said big foreign oil firms - which flocked to the oilsands until high costs and low commodity prices made it less attractive - are not likely to make a Canadian comeback.
"A lot of them were in Canada in earlier periods and left the country because they had a challenging time managing in the context of the capital constraints of Canada," he said.
"We've seen that movie and I don't think we're going to see a sequel," Edwards said
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