Baytex Energy

Baytex Energy Corp.

Type	Public
Traded as	TSX: BTE NYSE: BTE
Industry	Petroleum industry
Founded	1993
Headquarters	Calgary, Canada
Key people	Raymond Chan (Executive Chairman) James Bowzer (President and CEO)
Products	Heavy crude oil, Light crude oil, Natural Gas
Revenue	C$852.74 (2010)24%[1]
Net income	C$177.63 million (2010)103%
Total assets	C$2.047 billion dec 2010
Total equity	C$1.029 billion dec 2010
Number of employees	229 2014[2]
Divisions	5
Website	www.baytex.ab.ca

Baytex Energy Corp. is a Calgary-based^[3] Canadian producer, developer and explorer of oil (mostly heavy but also lighter conventional) and natural gas. Though formerly a trust it converted to a corporation January 2011 because of government changes to tax incentives.^[4] Through its subsidiaries, Baytex is "engaged in the business of acquiring, developing, exploiting and holding interests in petroleum and natural gas properties and related assets in Canada (in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan) and in the United States (in the states of North Dakota and Wyoming)."^[5] Heavy oil makes up 67% of production and 70% of reserves. Assets in Alberta and BC are located within the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. Outside of Canada Baytex operates in North Dakota. Baytex was over 40%-owned by institutional investors in late 2013, including four of the big five Canadian banks, and the Quebec Public Service Employees pension fund.^[6]

For fiscal 2010 total production was 44,341 bbls/d (53% from Alberta) 7% higher than the year before (with a high of over 45,015 bbls/d in the fourth quarter); for the year heavy oil made up 67% of production with the rest split between light oil and natural gas (16% each).^[1] In the first nine months of 2010 production averaged 44,113 boe per day (44,799 in the third quarter 64.6% of which was heavy oil) 7.77% higher than the same period in 2009 and 6.6% higher year on year (41,382 boe/d in 2009 2.8% higher than 2008) with light oil and NGL's contributing a smaller fraction, 14.9% in January to September 2010 compared to 16.8% in 2009 and 18.8% the year before;^[7] That will eventually change since light and medium oil (oil with an API gravity over 22.3 degrees) makes up a growing part of its reserve base.^[4][8]

In 2011 Baytex acquired "heavy oil assets located in the Reno area of northern Alberta and the Lloydminster area of western Saskatchewan."^[5]

By 2014 Baytex was producing about 26,000 bpd at Seal near Peace River, 18,000 bpd at Lloydminster and is anticipating an output of 24,700 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the Eagle Ford.^[3][9]

In June 2014 Baytex acquired Aurora Oil & Gas Limited.^[5]

In 2014 Baytex 52-week high was $49.88 and its 52-wk Low was $14.56.^[5]

History

Early on (1993–2000) the company was more focused on developing light oil and natural gas containing properties in North and SE Alberta. In Jan 19, 2006, Baytex Energy Trust announced that the New York Stock Exchange had cleared Baytex to file an Original Listing Application to list its trust units on the NYSE. The company began trading on the NYSE in March 27. In April 2008 it completed a $181 million takeover of Burmis Energy Inc, a Calgary-based oil and natural gas producer (72% of production was natural gas) that was nine times smaller than Baytex at the time. The deal gave Baytex control of the Seal heavy oil property in Alberta and increased daily production by 3,650 boe.^[10] Many key heavy oil and natural gas assets were purchased from True Energy Trust in the summer of 2009 for US$79.9 million (when the US:Cdn exchange rate was 1:1.164). The deal which included properties near Lloydminster and Kerrobert, Saskatchewan (heavy oil) and also central Alberta (natural gas) increased production and cash flow by 7% and 6% respectively.^[11]

In October 2010 it sold half of the interest it had in the Kerrobert heavy oil properties to Petrobank Energy and Resources (including another asset acquired in Dawson the transaction cost Petrobank $15 million, Petrobank's THAI and CAPRI technology can help Baytex exploit more of the resource).^[12][13]

In February 2011 it completed a $156.5 million deal with a private company for heavy oil assets in Saskatchewan (near Seal Lake and Lloydminster). The acquisition added over 10 million boe of proved and probable reserves and raised company production by about 5%.

Super-heated tanks oil-processing tanks

Several Peace River farming families have complained about "tar and solvent-like odours and emissions associated with heavy-crude operations across the region" after Baytex Energy began production. The Alberta Energy Regulator and Energy Minister Ken Hughes have publicly expressed concern about Baytex's conduct and have emphasized that the impacts being caused by Baytex are out of the ordinary. Minister Ken Hughes told CBC News the Mar. 22nd decision to put a moratorium on further drilling by Baytex in the Reno field was "unprecedented." "What I could detect was that there was something in the air that was different than the rest of Alberta," Hughes said. "This kind of development was experiencing different emissions, and different air quality problems." ^[14]

The families who had all originally welcomed the energy projects onto their land report "more than two years of health effects, including severe headaches and dizziness, sinus and other medical problems", according to their lawyer Keith Wilson. Regulations have not been developed for the CHOPS method of oil sands production being used by Baytex. That is why Baytex is not technically violating any laws by open venting its bitumen processing tanks. Because emissions from these tanks are known to cause health effects and affect air quality other companies like Penn West Petroleum use fully closed vapour recovery systems.^[15] Baytex has chosen not to expend the money installing these systems on the 86 super-heated oil sands processing tanks in the area despite reporting a record 200% rate of return on investment. A return rate that Baytex claims is one of the highest for any oil project in North America.^[16] The Alberta Government has expressed serious concerns about what Baytex is doing and has taken the unprecedented step of not only not allowing Baytex any new well licences in the area and but has also convened a public inquiry.^[17] Yet Baytex continues to produce in open vented tanks and several families remain out of their homes.^[18][19][20] There are broader concerns about what Baytex's actions may do to harm the reputation of Alberta's oil sands production at a time when the Canadian government is trying to reassure its trading partners that oil sands are produced in an environmentally safe and socially responsible manner.

From a purely market point of view, Baytex VP Brian Ector, notes their high capital efficiency, high rates of return projects has been successful for shareholders.^[3][9]

Operations

There are 5 principal subsidiaries that the company operates through; Baytex Energy Ltd., Baytex Energy Partnership, Baytex Energy Oil & Gas Ltd and Baytex Energy (USA) Ltd.^[21] 2P reserves totalled 197 million barrels of oil equivalent at the end of 2009.^[22]

Canadian Heavy Oil^[23]

• Alberta – Seal, Ardmore, Cold Lake, Lindbergh
  • Seal (63,000 acres undeveloped) – Oil sands property 100% owned through long term leases. 2009 production averaged 5,095 bbls/d.
  • Ardmore (39,000 acres undeveloped) – owned since 2002, produces about 2,100 bbls/d (includes 374 mcf natural gas).
  • Cold Lake (13,600 acres net undeveloped) – Oil production 476 bbls/d.
  • Lindbergh (21.25% owned) – not a significant producer (less than 600 bbls/d).
• Saskatchewan – Lloydminster and Kerrobert
  • Templeflags (7,800 acres undeveloped) – owned since 2000, produced 4,238 bbls/d of oil (48.7%) and natural gas (51.3%).

Canadian Light and Medium Oil and Gas^[24] (less than 290,000 acres of undeveloped land, produced at an average rate of 15,063 boe/d in 2009, 56.6% natural gas)

• British Columbia (owned since December 2004) – in and around Stoddart. All of the oil is processed by Baytex owned batteries (oil makes up 49.4% of production), natural gas is processed initially at its own facilities before being treated at other sites in BC (not owned).
• Alberta – in and around Bon Accorrd, Pembina as well as many small properties between there and Calgary (its corporate headquarters)
  • Bon Accord – part of the company since 1997, currently produces light oil and natural gas (in terms of barrels of oil equivalent light oil contributes twice as much as natural gas). Baytex has more recently (since 2009) utilized the method of horizontal well drilling to increase production.
  • Pembina (28,000 acres of net undeveloped land) – assets in the area were acquired in the summers of 2007 and 2008. Most of the extracted gas comes from the Nisku formation. Production is processed by facilities operated by the company and others run by other producers and refiners. Light oil and natural gas production are about the same, together they totaled 7,057 boe/d in 2009.
• Saskatchewan – Dodsland, SE Saskatchewan. Its 34,500 net acres contain light oil. Drilling involves fractured horizontal wells.

United States

• Many properties around Divide County, North Dakota

Canadian royalty trusts (CANROYs)

Penn West was one of a group of oil and gas producers which also included Advantage, ARC Energy, Baytex Energy, Bonavista Energy, Bonterra, Canadian Oil Sands, Crescent Point Energy, Daylight Resources, Enerplus Resources, Enterra, Fairborne Energy, Freehold Royalty, NAL Oil & Gas, Paramount, Pengrowth, Penn West Exploration, Peyto Energy, Progress Energy, Provident Energy, Trilogy, Vermillion Energy and Zargon Energy who did not pay "federal income taxes if they distributed their income to shareholders."^[25][26]

"The resulting double-digit dividend yields grabbed dividend investors’ attention in the mid-2000s. Eventually the government cracked down and starting in 2011, trusts were required to pay the same taxes as regular corporations. Consequently, all trusts converted to corporations, and many cut their dividends."

— Harry Domash

On January 1, 2011, Penn West converted from a CANROY to a conventional corporation.^[26]

References

External links

• Official website