Calgary-based Safety Boss Inc. is within a sparkplug’s gap of landing a multi- million-dollar contract in Iran.

“We have heard from the highest level that it’s been approved. It’s just a matter now of putting our proposal into contract form,” Mike Miller, president and CEO of Safety Boss, told me at the Global Petroleum Show.

Miller says the contract with the National Petroleum Co., a subsidiary of the Iranian government’s petroleum ministry, is in the range of $10 to $20 million US over three to five years. Safety Boss will supervise the safety of petrochemical facility construction in the Middle Eastern country.

Mike Sturk photo, Business Edge
Safety Boss president Mike Miller, left, chats with Alberta Economic Development Minister Mark Norris at Calgary’s Global Petroleum Show, held last week at Stampede Park.

Miller and his company, which also has offices in Red Deer, Grande Prairie and Fort Nelson, B.C., are internationally renowned for extinguishing 180 oilwell fires in 200 days in Kuwait. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s retreating army torched the wells during the 1991 Gulf War.

But Safety Boss found itself shut out of potential business in Iraq, after the Canadian government decided not to support the George W. Bush administration’s decision to invade the country and depose Saddam.

Miller says the U.S. government has essentially closed the door to his firm in Iraq, despite the Alberta firm’s proven track record.

So he says Safety Boss has decided not to pursue any contracts in the country until after an Iraqi administration takes over from U.S. military forces, scheduled for the end of this month.

Kuwait Calling

The same reason that will send Safety Boss to Iran – petrochemicals development – has also convinced the government of Kuwait to invest in the Edmonton and Red Deer areas.

Petrochemical Industries Co., a subsidiary of state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp., is acquiring a 50-per-cent interest in one petrochemical plant at Dow Chemical Canada’s Fort Saskatchewan site and two more facilities at Dow’s Prentiss complex.

The plants, among 11 at the two Dow Chemical sites, make about one million tonnes per year of ethylene glycol as a raw material for polyester fibres, polyethylene resins and antifreeze.

The materials, ultimately derived from liquid byproducts of Alberta natural gas, are manufactured into an array of consumer products that range from clothing to waterbottles.

The three Alberta plants will become part of a joint venture between Kuwait and Dow called MEGlobal. The joint venture will market more than two million tonnes of ethylene glycol per year, including production from the U.S. and Europe, according to reports from Edmonton.

The Kuwaiti petrochemical industry’s move into Alberta – its largest investment outside Kuwait – should help advance the provincial government’s $5-billion plan to refine growing oilsands production into clean fuels and an array of petrochemicals.

The ambitious plan includes building a new integrated petrochemical processing complex, capable of processing about 200,000 barrels of bitumen a day, in Petrochemical Alley in Fort Saskatchewan – an area called the Alberta Industrial Heartland.

Provincial officials say the plan appears feasible, based on studies with industry players that have included Suncor Energy, Shell Chemicals and Nova Chemicals.

CEO, Wildlife Division No environmentalists in the oilpatch? Hogwash!

Mike Russill, 59, has been hired as the new president and chief executive officer of the World Wildlife Fund of Canada.

He worked in a variety of senior marketing positions with Sunoco, Petro-Canada and Shell Canada before he retired in 2001.

Russill’s most recent work has been as chairman of AADCO Automotive Inc., an environmentally focused automotive recycler. He also is a former member of the board of the Nature Conservancy of Canada and he took part in a Suncor task force on environmental and social responsibility issues.

Russill’s new job should help boost co-operative efforts between the World Wildlife Fund and oil and gas companies to tap resources while still protecting the environment.

Several firms, including Suncor Energy, already work closely with the global environmental organization.

Bought and Sold

Petro-Canada is on a buying spree while Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Calpine Corp. have hung out a for-sale sign on their Alberta assets.

Petro-Can is buying Prima Energy Corp. for $719 million, giving the Calgary-based firm access to 55 million cubic feet per day of unconventional natural gas production (coalbed methane and geologically “tight” gas) in the U.S. Rocky Mountains.

The move follows EnCana Corp.’s purchase a couple of months ago for $2.7 billion US of Denver-based Tom Brown Inc., which also has key gas assets in the U.S. Rockies – the only area in North America where gas production is on the rise.

Analysts pointed out that neither Petro-Can nor EnCana’s move into the American gas basin comes at a cheap price.

But the acquisitions certainly signal that both seasoned gas producers believe natural gas prices are going to stay high for long enough to pay for their plans to boost production from the U.S. Rockies.

Houston-based Anadarko, meanwhile, plans to prune about 40 per cent of its Canadian energy properties, including about $1 billion US worth in Western Canada. They include assets in central and southern Alberta and northeastern B.C.

Anadarko says the sale is part of its strategy to repurchase up to $2 billion US of company stock and focus on higher-growth oil and gas plays.

Calpine Corp. of California has also decided it’s time for a summer sale.

Calpine says it’s looking for potential buyers for its Alberta gas reserves to help repay a $500-million US debt.

The sales are being driven by demand by energy trusts as well as Canadian exploration firms for producing oil and gas properties.

This demand has significantly raised prices for the assets, and prompted many U.S.-based firms to downsize operations in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.

Ausam Up Yonder

Say G’day! to Ausam Energy Corp.

The Australian energy company has moved its head office to Calgary, based on the dual strengths of Alberta’s energy market and Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange.

Ausam, engaged in land-based oil and gas exploration and development in Australia, plans to convert its resources to commercial production and reserves through under- balanced drilling and well-completion techniques – the same methods used in Canada to squeeze more natural gas out of previously exploited reservoirs.

Ausam owns interests in about 1.7 million net acres of development and exploration property in Alberta.

All the company needs now is more investors willing to sink some money into exploration wells.