The Credit Suisse 2010 Global Credit Products Conference in Miami
posted on
Sep 16, 2010 10:59AM
Connacher is a growing exploration, development and production company with a focus on producing bitumen and expanding its in-situ oil sands projects located near Fort McMurray, Alberta
I listened to the entire playback of the presentation by Dick Gusella and gleaned the following new information.
Dick Gusella stated that Connacher is the first company to use the high temperature ESP's. He stated that the lower temperature ESP's that have already been installed at POD 1 have a 12-18 month life index, and that they will be replaced by high temperature ESP's as soon as they wear out. The low temperature ESP's also can only be turned on/off a certain number of times by power failures etc. before they need to be replaced. He stated that the temperature in the underground heat chamber is around 240 degrees to 250 degrees.
He stated that Connacher is innovating with solvents to improve bitumen recovery rates . In addition Connacher has already made an application for gas co-injection into the underground chamber and is awaiting approval to go ahead with this.
Dick Gusella also stated that management will decide in 2011, whether to expand from 10,000 bbl/d of bitumen to 34,000 bbl/d at Algar, or whether to expand Algar in stages say from 10,000 to 20, 000 bbl/d etc up to 34,000 bbl/d .
In terms of paying for the expansion he said that mostly cash flow will fund the expansion and that management may need to issue equity or debt or take on a partner to fund the expansion however management will decide by the end of 2011 and that their preference is to maintain 100% control if possible.
He stated that as soon as the power substation is completed by the regional power supplier in 2011, that Connacher will be able to sell surplus electricity into the power grid.
He stated that managment will probably spend $25 million dollars this winter to drill more core holes this winter to improve reserves and shoot more 3D seizmic on Connachers bitumen lands.
Dick Gusella said that the EBITDA next year (2011) should be around $200 million dollars with the increased bitumen production.
During the question period he was asked about Connacher's ownership of Petrolifera shares. He said that some people have said why didn't you sell Petrolifera when the shares were $26 dollars a couple of years ago. He said we couldn't sell it at that time. It simply wasn't feasible. He continued to state that "in essence we are on a slippery slope to zero. " Connacher will one day sell its equity in Petrolifera, so there is no intention of Connacher management to buy out Petrolifera and to take it back.
This is the new information that I gleaned from the webcast. If you relisten to the webcast today and you find other new facts please post them on this board. Also, if after listening to the webcast that you feel that I have made an error here, also please post it.
Cheers; Scott