Natural gas pipes
Direct Energy announced Friday it had acquired certain Albertan natural gas assets from Shell Canada for $47-million in cash.
The North American subsidiary of British energy giant Centrica said the acquisition gives it a 100-per-cent working interest in certain assets and gas processing facilities in Alberta's Wildcat Hills region.
The acquisition increases Direct Energy's reserves by 8 per cent and translates into approximately 10 million cubic feet equivalent of natural gas per day and an additional 45 billion cubic feet equivalent of proven and probable natural gas reserves.
The Wildcat Hills assets are located 35 km northwest of Calgary. Direct Energy had already been operating them since October last year, and said acquiring them was a logical step forward.
Spokesman Badar Khan said the acquisition would help Direct Energy optimize its investment and operations in the area.
The company said it intends to increase the amount of power and gas sourced from its own production operations in the future.
"The existing low commodity price cycle in North American energy markets presents significant growth opportunities for our business," said president and CEO Chris Weston.
"Growing our upstream gas and power assets is important to ensuring we are a stable, long-term partner to the millions of residential and business customers we serve across North America."
Direct Energy is one of North America's largest energy and energy-related services providers and also operates approximately 4,600 producing gas wells in Alberta.