Enerplus Corporation is one of Canada’s largest independent oil and gas producers. The company holds oil and natural gas property interest in the United States and in western Canada, in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. The company is based out of Calgary, Alberta and trades on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. It was Canada's first
income trust
An income trust is an investment that may hold equities, debt instruments, royalty interests or real properties. They are especially useful for financial requirements of institutional investors such as pension funds, and for investors such as retir ...
.
History
Enerplus was established in 1986 by Marcel Tremblay, a pension fund manager and John Brussa, a lawyer. It was originally called Enerplus Resources Fund, and it was Canada's first
income trust
An income trust is an investment that may hold equities, debt instruments, royalty interests or real properties. They are especially useful for financial requirements of institutional investors such as pension funds, and for investors such as retir ...
. Its original purpose was to provide income from mature, aging oil and gas assets to retail investors, taking advantage of the tax advantages of the income trust structure. It started trading on the
Toronto Stock Exchange
The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; french: Bourse de Toronto) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in the ...
in 1986 with a $10 million IPO.
In 1996, Mark Resources renamed itself Enermark, became an income trust, and joined the Enerplus group of companies. This was at the behest of Enerplus's then-CEO, Marcel Tremblay, in response to a hostile take-over attempt.
In 2000, Enerplus merged with the Westrock Funds. In 2001, Enermark was merged into Enerplus. In 2004, it bought some of
ChevronTexaco's western Canadian assets for $467 million. In 2005, Enerplus acquired American energy company Lyco Energy for $500 million, as part of an expansion strategy into the United States. Lyco held assets in South Dakota and Montana. This was the largest American acquisition by a Canadian oil and gas income trust to that time.
In 2008, Enerplus acquired Focus Energy Trust for $1.4 billion in stock. Focus unit-holders ended up owning 20% of the merged entity. Focus primarily specialized in natural gas production. In 2010, Enerplus sold their Kirby oilsands leases for $400 million, as a move of the company away from the oilsands.
Around the same time, the company bought several properties in the Bakken formation in North Dakota for US$456 million.
Enerplus Corporation converted from an income trust to a corporate entity on January 1, 2011, after receiving approval by 98.5% of unitholders. This was done because of changes in the taxation rules for income trusts.
In 2016, Enerplus sold its Alberta natural gas properties for $193 million.
Operations
As of 2015, Enerplus produced 110,800
barrels per day
A barrel is one of several units of volume applied in various contexts; there are dry barrels, fluid barrels (such as the U.K. beer barrel and U.S. beer barrel), oil barrels, and so forth. For historical reasons the volumes of some barrel units ...
, 55% from natural gas, and 45% from crude oil and other liquids.
75% of production in the United States, and 25% is in Canada. It has three main areas of operation:
* The Williston basin: The company produces crude oil from properties in the
Fort Berthold Fort Berthold was the name of two successive forts on the upper Missouri River in present-day central-northwest North Dakota. Both were initially established as fur trading posts. The second was adapted as a post for the U.S. Army. After the Army l ...
area of North Dakota. As of 2017, production was 30,000 barrels per day.
* The Marcellus region in Pennsylvania, where the company has shale gas assets, with a 2017 production of around per day
* Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, with 2016 crude oil production of 10,000 barrels per day
See also
*
Petroleum industry in Canada
Petroleum production in Canada is a major industry which is important to the economy of North America. Canada has the third largest oil reserves in the world and is the world's fourth largest oil producer and fourth largest oil exporter. In 2 ...
*
Canadian petroleum companies
References
External links
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{{Authority control
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange
Energy companies of Canada
Companies based in Calgary
Non-renewable resource companies established in 1986
Oil companies of Canada
1986 establishments in Canada