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Encana Corp said Japan’s Toyota Tsusho Corp will buy a royalty interest in its southern Alberta natural gas field for $602 million as depressed dry gas prices force the company to cut spending or look for partners. Encana said in February that it would sell a 40% stake in its British Columbia gas field to Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp in a $2.9 billion deal. Toyota Tsusho, part of Toyota Motor Corp, paid $100 million and will invest about $502 million over seven years to buy a 32.5% royalty interest in about 4,000 existing wells and 1,500 potential drilling locations.
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Nufarm and Sumitomo Chemical Co. announced new distribution arrangements for Canada and three European countries. In Canada, Nufarm Agriculture will sell crop protection and specialty products of Sumitomo-owned companies Valent USA Corp. and Valent BioSciences Corp. The agreement expands their distribution partnership launched in 2011 when Nufarm Agriculture began selling Valent’s Valtera herbicide.
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Encana is selling a major stake in its B.C. gas assets to Mitsubishi, announcing the $2.9-billion deal on the same day it posted a net loss of almost $250 million for the fourth quarter. The agreement will see the integrated Japanese global business enterprise take a 40% interest in the Cutbank Ridge Partnership. The partnership holds about 409,000 net acres of Encana's undeveloped Montney-formation natural gas lands in northeastern B.C. with proved undeveloped reserves of approximately 900 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent. Mitsubishi is to pay $1.45 billion on closing.
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Montreal's Enerkem, a developer of thermochemical technology that converts municipal solid waste into syngas, said U.S. Waste Management Inc. and EB Investments are investing $15 million for a minority equity stake in Enerkem Alberta Biofuels, now building an Edmonton biofuels plant. The total raised by Enerkem for the project this year is $103 million, including contributions from Alberta Innovates, the City of Edmonton and Alberta Energy. "This is a further validation of Enerkem's strategy and strong position in the cellulosic ethanol sector." CEO Vincent Chornet said. "The plant will be among the first full-scale advanced biofuels facilities to be built in North America."
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Illinois-based Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) says it will construct a biodiesel plant in Alberta. Construction on the biodiesel plant will start in April 2012, and be completed in the fourth quarter of 2013. The new plant with a capacity of 265 million litres will be located adjacent to ADM's existing canola crushing facility in Lloydminster which will help optimize the company's agricultural origination, transportation and processing assets in Canada.
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BioAmber, through its subsidiary Bluewater Biochemicals, has selected Sarnia as the location for its first North American biosuccinic acid plant. The Sarnia plant will have an initial capacity of 17,000 MT and will be commissioned in 2013. BioAmber currently produces and sells biobased succinic acid at a 3,000 MT capacity plant in France. BioAmber plans to double capacity in Sarnia by 2014 through the introduction of a yeast being developed with Cargill.
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VWR International LLC, a global distributor of laboratory supplies and services headquartered in Pennsylvania, is investing in Montreal-based Anachemia Canada Inc. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. Anachemia sells and distributes chemicals, laboratory supplies and equipment in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Latin America. "VWR's acquisition of Anachemia strengthens our position in Canada and accelerates our expansion into South America," said Matt Malenfant, VWR's senior vice-president and president of North America, Lab Business and Services.
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Phostech Lithium, a subsidiary of German specialty chemicals group Süd-Chemie AG, opened in Candiac, Quebec, the largest plant in the world to use a superior quality process for the production of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) for use in new generations of batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles. The construction of Phostech Lithium's new facilities represents a $78 million investment and will enable some fifty jobs to be created.
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A Yorkshire manufacturer of chemical storage tanks announced that it will expand in Canada after a series of contract wins. Chem Resist has sold two acid dilution plants to Canadian companies. For example, one has gone to ClearTech, an Edmonton-based distributor of chemicals, chemical feed equipment and laboratory products across Canada. Chem Resist said it wants to pick up more business in areas such as Edmondton, British Columbia and Toronto.
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PTT Exploration and Production Plc has gained a foothold in Canada by paying around $2,3 billion for a 40% stake in the Kai Kos Dehseh project operated by the Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil ASA. This deal is said to be the largest overseas acquisition to date by a Thai company. In addition to gaining access to a highly attractive deposit in the western Canadian province of Alberta, the company hoped to pursue future growth into unconventional resources.
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BASF will relocate work from an American plant to Windsor, Ont., CBC News reports. BASF will announce the closure of a facility in New Jersey along with plans to move those operations to the location in Windsor, Ontario. The move secures jobs for the 150 people who work at the Windsor site.
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Mosaic Co. will expand its three potash operations in Saskatchewan by 5 million tonnes over the next 12 years at a cost of $3.15 billion U.S., the Plymouth, Minn.-based fertilizer giant has announced. The expansion plan will bring Mosaic's potash production to 15.5 million tonnes annually by 2020 - an increase of about 50 per cent from the current 10.4 million tonnes. The Saskatchewan expansion project is expected to create 700 permanent jobs in the three operations in Belle Plaine, Esterhazy and Colonsay, as well as 4,500 person years of employment during the construction phase.
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Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont has announced a multi-million dollar investment in its manufacturing site at Thetford Mines, Quebec, which produces DuPont Zodiaq quartz surfaces for the residential and commercial markets. Zodiaq is a premium surfacing material made almost entirely of pure quartz crystals. It is used in commercial and residential countertops, worktops, vanity tops and walls. No financial or employment data was released by the company.
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Norwegian engineering firm, Aker Kvaerner ASA, has announced an $18 million investment in its Process & Construction business by expanding the company's technology fabrication arm; Aker Kvaerner Chemetics in Pickering, Ontario. Aker Kvaerner Chemetics was established in Greater Toronto in 1961. The construction of this facility will enable Aker Kvaerner Chemetics to further capitalize on their expertise in specialised welding, stainless steel and high alloy fabrication. "Construction of this facility will allow us to capitalise on the market's demand for shell and tube fabrication by more than doubling our production capacity in Toronto. We expect employment to increase 40% by the end of 2009," says Bob Vanderland, president of the Toronto facility.
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Michigan-based Dow Chemical's Canadian subsidiary has entered into a partnership with Aux Sable Canada Ltd. on a new processing plant to a tap bitumen "off-gas" from the Heartland Upgrader now under construction near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta by BA Energy. The project will be the first in Canada to extract ethane and ethylene from an upgrader off gas stream.
