CanOxy must grin and bear with Nexen

The name game is serious business in Calgary.

Canadian Occidental Petroleum is the latest to change its moniker. As long as CanOxy shareholders approve the new name on Nov. 2, the Calgary-based oil and gas producer will be known from then on as Nexen.

For those into word play, that corporate name is a palindrome -- it's Nexen either backward or forward. And as they say in those infomercials: But wait, there's more.

Nexen signifies "a new energy." And note that there's an "ex" in there, as in exploration and excellence. Plus, there's an "en" as in energy. And of course, if you're paying close attention, there's "nex" as in something close to the Latin term nexus, which means a bond among several members of a group.

CanOxy came up with its new identity five months after its shareholders voted in April to support CanOxy's $1.2-billion deal to cut ties with Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum.

Under that deal to acquire the U.S. parent's 29-per-cent stake, CanOxy bought back 20 million of its shares from Occidental while the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board acquired 20.2 million shares from Occidental.

Coming up with a catchy, internationally acceptable label for CanOxy wasn't an easy task. Its main energy holdings are in the Middle East country of Yemen and it also holds a 7.23-per-cent stake in the Syncrude oil sands project in northern Alberta.

CanOxy is also expanding its operations in the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Australia, Colombia and offshore Nigeria. Another promising project focuses on offshore Indonesia, where CanOxy is embarking on "elephant hunting" -- the industry term for searching for huge oil pools.

So, on paper at least, Nexen seems to be a fine selection reflecting those global energy holdings and it will likely gain industry acceptance over time. In the short term, however, Nexen is getting mixed reviews because there are so many other Nexen references out there already.

South Korean tire maker Woosung recently switched to Nexen. And is already taken by Fujitsu Network Communications.

CanOxy will have to grin and bear it. As one of the leading producers based in Canada, it has many pressing matters, including its gradual move into the former Calgary headquarters of Nova.

Remember Nova? That's the conglomerate that used to have both a chemicals and pipelines division. Now the pipeline assets are part of TransCanada PipeLines and Nova Chemicals is based in Pittsburgh. (Nova is Avon backward, but don't be distracted.)

For years, Nova insisted on being called NOVA Corp. of Alberta -- Nova in capitals, with the emphasis on Alberta at the end. The only thing missing was an exclamation mark. Nova used to be called Alberta Gas Trunk Line, but it switched to the snappier Nova under Bob Blair's leadership. Nova did live up to its name by flaring up and then fading away as a conglomerate.

How about Nexen? There isn't a patent in Calgary on the "en" sound. There's already Enbridge, formerly IPL Energy, and Enmax, the City of Calgary's electricity distributor. And then there's Encal, the oil and gas producer.

Barrie Shibley, chief executive officer of Calgary-based Tathacus Resources, is watching the revolving door of names with some amusement.

Two main shareholders of Tathacus are the Gitxsan Resources Trust and the Six Nations Band Council. Mr. Shibley said Tathacus is something he and other officers conjured up, although it's convenient that it sounds Latin and carries a subliminal message from the aboriginal shareholders: Take That, Custer.

Tathacus is planning to change its name, too, but it won't be where you would think. Tathacus is a mouthful, but Mr. Shibley wants to change his company's name to Tathacus Hydrogen. That would reflect the firm's new focus on efficiently generating hydrogen from water.

Tathacus still has an oil and gas subsidiary, but its share price on the Canadian Venture Exchange has been fuelled by speculation over its possible inroads into alternative energy.

Mr. Shibley offers one bit of advice. He urges CanOxy to think twice before slapping the Nexen name on the distinctive silver office tower that formerly housed Nova's world headquarters.

Calgary is littered with buildings named after companies that are no longer around, including Dome, Canterra, and Home Oil. Readers can send e-mail to