OGJ Newsletter

Dec. 5, 2011
International news for oil and gas professionals

GENERAL INTERESTQuick Takes

Investor group to acquire Samson Investment

An investor group led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. LP will acquire Tulsa-based Samson Investment Co., one of the largest private US E&P companies, for $7.2 billion.

Besides KKR, the investor group consists of Natural Gas Partners, Crestview Partners, and Itochu Corp. It has committed that company headquarters remain in Tulsa.

The Schusterman family will continue to own Samson's Gulf Coast onshore and Gulf of Mexico deepwater assets. Closing is expected by yearend. The firm will be renamed Samson Resources. David Adams, chief operating officer, will be named chief executive officer.

Founded in 1971, Samson employs nearly 1,200 and owns interests in more than 10,000 wells, of which it operates over 4,000, in the US. The company has key positions in oil and liquids-rich plays such as the Bakken, Powder River, Green River, Granite Wash, Cana Woodford, and Cotton Valley as well as in the Haynesville and Bossier gas shales.

CNOOC completes acquisition of OPTI

A unit of CNOOC Ltd. completed its $2.1 billion acquisition of Canadian oil sands producer OPTI Canada Inc., Calgary (OGJ Online, July 20, 2011).

OPTI has a 35% working interest in Long Lake and three other oil sands project areas in the Athabasca region of northeastern Alberta. Now an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of CNOOC, OPTI will ask the TSX Venture Exchange to delist OPTI shares. Subject to approval by the exchange, the delisting of the OPTI shares is anticipated on Dec. 1.

The Long Lake project includes steam-assisted gravity drainage operation that began in 2008 and an upgrader that started up in 2009 (OGJ, Aug. 11, 2008, p. 43).

Nexen Inc., Calgary, operates Long Lake with 65% interest. The Long Lake SAGD project is expected to have throughput of 72,000 b/d of bitumen at full production. It is anticipated that the Long Lake upgrader ultimately will produce 58,500 b/d of products, mainly 39° gravity premium sweet crude.

OPTI's three other oil sands project areas are Kinosis, Leismer, and Cottonwood.

Macondo spill response coordinator to lead BSEE

US Sec. of the Interior Ken Salazar appointed US Coast Guard Rear Adm. James A. Watson IV as director of the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. Watson, who was federal on-scene coordinator for the government's response to the 2010 Macondo deepwater well incident, will succeed BSEE Interim Director Michael R. Bromwich on Dec. 1, Salazar said.

Watson was deputy commander of USCG's Atlantic Area Command when he was chosen to coordinate the federal response after the BP PLC well blew out on April 20, 2010, and the semisubmersible rig drilling it caught fire and exploded, killing 11 workers. The semi, Transocean Ltd.'s Deepwater Horizon, sank a day later, setting off a massive oil spill.

Watson, who currently serves as USCG's prevention policy director for marine safety, security, and stewardship, will take the helm of the Interior agency formed to enforce offshore oil and gas safety and environmental regulations following the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement's division into two separate units.

Bromwich, who became BOEMRE's director following its formation from the old US Minerals Management Service and remained to lead BSEE until a permanent director could be found, will stay at DOI as a counselor to the secretary through December to ensure a smooth transition, Salazar said.

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