September 2, 2015 [OPIS] - Cenovus Energy said that it has closed its previously announced purchase of Canexus Corporation's North American Terminal Operations (NATO), a crude-by-rail trans-loading facility in central Alberta.
The acquisition is part of Cenovus’s strategy to build a strong portfolio of transportation options to help maximize market access and capture global prices for its oil.
The company has also contracted Savage to work with Cenovus’s on-site management team in the day-to-day operations of the renamed Bruderheim Energy Terminal.
Savage is a provider of rail transportation and terminal operations in the U.S. and Canada.
Located approximately 50 kilometers (31 miles) northeast of Edmonton in Bruderheim, Alberta, the terminal has strategic value for Cenovus due to its connections to the Cold Lake and Access crude oil pipeline systems as well as its links to the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National rail lines.
Cenovus, which began moving its oil through the facility in 2014, currently transports crude oil production volumes from its Foster Creek steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) operation to Bruderheim on the Cold Lake pipeline.
There is potential to expand the acquired facility at a relatively low capital cost.
Additionally, there is undeveloped land included in the transaction that provides significant potential as Cenovus evaluates a number of possible value-added projects.
Cenovus Energy Inc. is a Canadian integrated oil company. Besides its upstream business, Cenovus is a 50% share owner of two refineries at Wood River, Ill., and Borger, Texas. Phillips 66 owns the other 50% share of both refineries.
Both refineries have a combined total capacity of approximately 460,000 gross barrels per day, with the ability to process up to 255,000 gross barrels per day of blended heavy crude oil. In 2014, both refineries produced an average of 455,000 gross barrels per day of refined products.
