Petro-Canada Looking Abroad

According to Petro-Canda CEO Ron Brenneman, international operations will be the "foundation for our future".

Petro-Canada produced 465,000 boe/d in 2003, up from 382,000 boe/d in 2002. The majority of the increase is attributed to the acquisition of Veba Oil from Germany's Veba and BP in May 2002. The C$3.2 billion (US$2.4 billion) acquisition, which included upstream properties in the North Sea, North Africa and Latin America, made Petro-Canada a significant international player overnight.

The Veba deal provided Petro-Canada with an international production core around which it could expand, however the deal did not vastly enhance its exploration opportunities and the company is now looking at other opportunities overseas. "The Veba acquisition helped, but we're not there yet. We knew it didn't have a strong exploration portfolio, and that it was not going to allow us to replace our reserves yearly," Brenneman said.

"We will look at opportunities that lead us to the Mideast, Venezeula, and places that have large LNG development prospects. The competition is intense, and these large-scale projects are extremely capital intensive. But our track record is beginning to speak for itself," Brenneman said.