Canada's Imperial Oil to market XTO Energy interests (updated)

TAG Oil

12/01/2022 22:39

(Updates with details and background on XTO)
    Jan 12 (Reuters) - Imperial Oil Ltd  IMO.TO  said on
Wednesday it plans to market its interests in XTO Energy Canada
jointly with Exxon Mobil Canada, as part of the company's
ongoing evaluation of its portfolio.
    Imperial and Exxon Mobil Canada each own 50% of XTO Energy
Canada, with assets that include 568,000 net acres in the
Montney shale, 85,000 net acres in the Duvernay shale and
additional acreage in other areas of Alberta.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nBw1BHs5Xa
    Calgary-based Imperial, which is majority-owned by Exxon
Mobil  XOM.N , said net production from these assets is about
140 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and about 9,000
barrels of crude, condensate and natural gas liquids per day.
    Imperial said its plans to sell its interests in XTO is
consistent with its strategy to focus upstream resources on key
oil sands assets, but a final decision has not been made.
    Canada's Montney, which straddles Alberta and British
Columbia, saw a wave of consolidation as companies buckled under
when oil prices collapsed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Imperial and Exxon Mobil Canada have retained RBC Capital
Markets as their exclusive financial advisor in connection with
this process.
    Exxon on Tuesday also launched the sale of shale gas
properties stretching across 27,000 acres in the Appalachian
basin of Ohio as part of an ongoing divestiture of U.S. assets.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2TR2WD
    The oil major in 2020 took a near $20 billion writedown on
properties, primarily purchased with subsidiary XTO Energy a
decade earlier. It removed gas assets in Appalachia, the Rocky
Mountains, Oklahoma, Texas and elsewhere from its development
plan after the writedown.

 (Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh
Kuber)
 ((Arunima.Kumar@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aru_Kumar94
 ;))