°\(^▿^)/°   
      
   Don't let the door hit your asses on the way out . . . .   
   __________________________   
   Bloomberg News/today   
      
   Billionaire Koch brothers dump Canada’s oilsands leases as foreign exodus   
   continues   
      
      
   CALGARY – Once among the largest landholders in the oilsands, industrial   
   conglomerate Koch Industries Inc. has sold off its upstream leases and   
   abandoned licences in the heavy oil play, joining a stream of foreign   
   companies exiting the bitumen-bearing    
   formation.   
      
   Wichita, Kan.-based Koch Industries struck an agreement to sell thousands of   
   hectares of land in the oilsands to Calgary-based Cavalier Energy Inc., a   
   subsidiary of the Riddell family-controlled Paramount Resources Ltd., in a   
   transaction that occurred in    
   June, the Financial Post has confirmed.   
      
   Koch, one of the world’s largest private companies owned by American   
   billionaires and Republican donors Charles and David Koch, has also abandoned   
   the licences it did not sell in the transaction with Paramount and has been   
   allowing its leases in the    
   play to expire.   
      
   Paramount, meanwhile, expands its holdings in the oilsands, which already   
   includes ownership in Cavalier and a stake in steam-based oilsands producer   
   MEG Energy Corp.  Founded by late billionaire geologist Clay Riddell,   
   Paramount built a reputation for    
   exploring oil and gas resources in new plays and in untapped corners of   
   existing plays.  In 2002, his son Jim Riddell became president and COO of   
   Paramount and has amassed more and more responsibility over the company and   
   its subsidiaries.  He’s now    
   president and CEO of Paramount and executive chairman of Cavalier.   
      
   “The majority of Koch Oil Sands licences have been transferred to Paramount   
   Resources Ltd. All of the remaining licences for well sites have been   
   abandoned, which means that they have been permanently sealed and taken out of   
   service,” Alberta Energy    
   Regulator spokesperson Shawn Roth said in an email.   
      
   Paramount, which has a market capitalization of $806 million, did not disclose   
   the transaction beyond updating its land holdings in its investor presentation   
   this month.  The company’s latest investor presentation says Cavalier now   
   holds rights for 1,   
   994 net sections of land in the oilsands —  a 512 per cent increase over the   
   326 net sections it held at the beginning of the year.   
      
   The government of Alberta lists one section of land as 640 acres, meaning   
   Cavalier could hold close to 1.3 million acres of land in the oilsands — six   
   times larger than the footprint of Calgary.   
      
   Neither Paramount nor Cavalier responded to requests for comment.   
      
   Koch remains invested in the Canadian energy industry through its Flint Hills   
   Resources subsidiary, which owns oil storage tanks at Hardisty, Alta., and   
   refineries in the U.S. that process diluted bitumen from the oilsands.   
      
   However, the company confirmed it had sold down its upstream oilsands holdings   
   and surrendered expired leases in the play.   
      
   “Those leases, which were held by Koch Oil Sands Holdings, have varied over   
   the years.  These recent transactions are merely a reflection of the   
   opportunities that are currently available in the marketplace and our desire   
   to prioritize other    
   initiatives,” Koch spokesperson Rob Carlton said in an email.   
      
   Koch’s departure from the oilsands continues a trend of exits by foreign   
   companies from the play, following multi-billion-dollar divestments by Shell   
   Canada Ltd., ConocoPhillips Co., Devon Energy Corp., Marathon Oil Corp.,   
   Statoil SA, Total SA and    
   others since 2017.     
      
   The sell off includes producing and non-producing assets in the heavy oil   
   formation, as a lack of new export pipelines made developing the area more   
   difficult and lucrative plays like the Permian basin in Texas wooed investors   
   away from Canada.   
      
   Most of the buyers have been large Canadian producers such as Suncor Energy   
   Inc., Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Cenovus Energy Inc., and Athabasca Oil   
   Corp. who have solidified their positions in the oilsands.   
      
   Now, Paramount through Cavalier has emerged as a major Canadian acquirer of   
   oilsands leases.   
      
   While the value of the Koch-Cavaliar deal was not disclosed, prices of   
   undeveloped land in the oilsands have fallen dramatically from their peak 10   
   years ago when foreign companies and domestic producers were buying up blocks   
   in the play at inflated    
   prices, said Eight Capital analyst Phil Skolnick.   
      
   Most of the land that has changed hands in the play recently shows attempts by   
   major companies to acquire parcels contiguous to their existing facilities,   
   which looks like “filling in the checkerboard,” Skolnick said.   
      
   CNRL’s recent deal to buy Total’s unused Joslyn oilsands lease to expand   
   its own Horizon oilsands mine was an example of how land adjacent to existing   
   projects is valuable, he said.   
      
   Oilsands leases farther afield from the hub of activity near Fort McMurray and   
   Cold Lake, Alta., are less valuable and Koch isn’t the only company handing   
   leases back to the province rather than developing the land.   
      
   The Post could not confirm whether the Koch leases Paramount acquired were in   
   close proximity to other oilsands projects.  Some of Koch’s vast land   
   holdings have been in more remote, deeper and more technically challenging   
   parts of the oilsands region    
   called the carbonates, but it’s unclear which leases were sold and which   
   expired.   
      
   Koch is not the only company allowing leases in the oilsands to expire as the   
   pace of development in the play has slowed in recent years.   
   [- - -]   
   ______________________________   
      
   And to think that the Koch brothers were also getting Canadian taxpayer money   
   in the form of subsidies for 'exploration and development'.  Many more   
   American companies, like theirs, still are.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)