Operations

Acquisitions and Divestments (“A&D”) are a key component in business as they help to replenish our inventory of development prospects targeted through our capital development program and also help to grow our asset base. We maintain a disciplined approach in our acquisition strategy as we look to maintain the quality of our overall portfolio and achieve the highest possible economic return. We have also pursued a strategy of investing equity in smaller energy companies that have a potential strategic benefit for us.

Our recent activities include:

- July 31, 2008 - we announced the closing of the agreement to sell our 15% working interest in the Joslyn oil sands lease to Occidental Petroleum Corporation for net proceeds of $502 million. We used the proceeds initially to reduce bank debt and expect to redeploy the funds towards accretive acquisition and development opportunities. (Click here for the news release)

- February 13, 2008 - we completed our single largest acquisition in our history - the $1.7 billion acquisition of Focus Energy Trust. The concentration and overlap of the Focus properties (approximately 85% of the total production volumes from Focus was derived from the Shackleton, Saskatchewan and Tommy Lakes, British Columbia properties) and our combined technical and execution expertise have been key elements in the integration. This acquisition has given us a production weighting of just over 60% natural gas and 40% crude oil and NGLs in our portfolio. This acquisition fit with our strategy of growth, with high quality assets that will help to improve our operating metrics and also add over $430 million of future development potential into our portfolio. The two key operated properties, Shackleton and Tommy Lakes, provide concentrated assets with significant overlap. This gives us an increased size that will provide greater financial capacity to pursue additional merger and acquisition activity and large capital projects. Click here for more detail on our shallow natural gas and tight gas resource plays.

For a more detailed review of our A&D as well as our equity investment strategy, please click here for our Annual Information Form.

Last updated: February 13, 2009