Talisman shifts focus to unconventional gas

Talisman shifts focus to unconventional gas
DAVID EBNER
00:00 EDT Wednesday, May 21, 2008

CALGARY -- Talisman Energy Inc. plans to spend $1.3-billion in the next 18 months to evaluate the potential of unconventional natural gas on one million hectares of land it controls in North America.

The spending is part of an overhaul of the company's strategy, a process that started when new chief executive officer John Manzoni took over from long-time leader Jim Buckee last year.
Talisman has spoken about the broad ideas of its shift and late yesterday provided some details ahead of three days of meetings with investors, starting today in New York, moving to Toronto tomorrow and to Calgary on Friday.

Instead of chasing exploration opportunities around the world, Talisman is narrowing its geographic focus. It is also embracing unconventional gas, which Mr. Buckee had dismissed as uninteresting while competitors such as EnCana Corp. successfully pursued it.

Unconventional gas is in fields where the molecules are trapped in tight rock formations that are difficult to access.

With higher spending on unconventional gas, Talisman's budget this year is rising $500-million or 11 per cent to $4.9-billion and will jump a further 18 per cent to $5.8-billion if the work goes well.

"By the end of 2009, we will be able to make informed choices about ongoing levels of investment into our unconventional resource plays," Mr. Manzoni said in a statement.
As Talisman evaluates unconventional gas, it said it aims to increase production by about 6.5 per cent. In 2010, 2011 and 2012, Talisman said it hopes to push the growth to about 7.5 per cent.

Talisman stock has climbed quickly recently after two years of a slow decline. Since March, the shares have soared more than 50 per cent, riding surging oil and gas prices. The Toronto Stock Exchange energy index rose 3.1 per cent to another record close.

The company hopes to raise $2-billion selling assets worth 45,000 barrels a day to further focus the company's holdings. Talisman has been selling assets for several years after criticism from investors that the firm had too many things on the go.

In the first quarter, Talisman's production of oil and gas was 411,000 barrels a day.

TALISMAN (TLM)
Close: $24.90, up 96¢

Questerre and Talisman to Accelerate Work in Quebec

Buy It Today :"First, it means that QEC will be prominiently mentioned at Talisman's presentation next week.Second, that Talisman approved having QEC steal a little of there thunder with this pre-release of info because it is a fairly large part of their shale gas plans. Finally, given that we now know that this 700,000 acre jt venture with Talisman is very important to them we can expect to get schedule for the rampup of production. The profit potential is going to surprise a lot of people."

Source

Questerre and Talisman to Accelerate Work in Quebec

QUESTERRE ENERGY CORP QEC5/16/2008 12:15:03 AMCALGARY, ALBERTA, May 16, 2008 (Marketwire via COMTEX News Network) --

Questerre Energy Corporation ("Questerre" or the "Company") (TSX:QEC) (OSE:QEC) is pleased to announce that Talisman Energy Canada ("Talisman") has elected to drill the remaining three option wells under its farm-in agreement with Questerre and its minority partner in the St. Lawrence Lowlands, Quebec.

The three wells will complete the work program allowing Talisman to earn about a 75% interest in the original 719,000 acre farm-out block. Questerre also retains about a 4 1/4% gross overriding royalty on production from Talisman.


Michael Binnion, President and Chief Executive Officer of Questerre, commented, "We were one of the first companies to recognize the potential of the Quebec Lowlands for unconventional gas and have worked for almost ten years to get to this point. We are thrilled that Talisman, which also saw the potential early on, has decided to accelerate the exploration and appraisal program.

Our joint land lies right in the heart of the Lowlands between the Yamaska growth fault and Logan's Line and runs from Quebec City to south of Lac Saint Pierre. We continue to believe this land position proximate to the market has significant natural gas potential."

The three-well program is expected to commence in the latter half of 2008. The wells will test multiple horizons including the Trenton Black-River and the Utica and Lorraine shale sequences.
Questerre Energy Corporation is a Calgary-based independent resource company actively engaged in the exploration, development and acquisition of high-impact exploration and development oil and gas projects in Canada.

This news release contains forward-looking information. Implicit in this information are assumptions regarding commodity pricing, production, royalties and expenses, that, although considered reasonable by the Company at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect.

These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions that involve a number of risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results could differ materially as a result of changes in the Company's plans, commodity prices, equipment availability, general economic, market, regulatory and business conditions as well as production, development and operating performance and other risks associated with oil and gas operations. There is no guarantee made by the Company that the actual results achieved will be the same as those forecasted herein.

SOURCE: QUESTERRE ENERGY CORPORATION
Questerre Energy Corporation Jason D'Silva VP Finance (403) 777-1185 (403) 777-1578 (FAX) Email: info@questerre.com Website: http://www.questerre.com/Copyright (C) 2008 Marketwire. All rights reserved.


Roving Talisman casts its eyes homeward
NORVAL SCOTT
00:00 EDT Thursday, May 01, 2008

CALGARY -- Talisman Energy Inc., which for years staked its future on former chief executive officer Jim Buckee's vision of global deep-well exploration, is making a dramatic about-turn: It's embracing Canada's unconventional natural gas resources.

John Manzoni, who took over as CEO in September, said yesterday Talisman will now focus on growth in only a select few areas, one of which is producing gas from tight rock formations in North America.

Under Mr. Buckee, its only previous CEO, the company developed an idiosyncratic reputation for seeking worldwide growth through exploration, instead of tackling the easy-to-find, yet hard-to-develop resources lying in the company's own Alberta backyard.

While Talisman will continue to be a worldwide explorer, Mr. Manzoni's new strategy effectively ditches the company's scattergun approach. His more conservative plan would seek to deliver more reliable, sustainable production over a longer period, adopting the ways of many oil patch majors.

"What has been successful over the last decade may not be so successful going forward," said Mr. Manzoni at the company's annual meeting in Calgary. "In the last year or two our business model has become challenged - we are now at a scale where's it's more difficult to grow at the same pace with the same strategies. We have had to run faster and faster just to stand still."
The annual meeting, which followed the release of the company's first-quarter financial results, was Mr. Manzoni's first public appearance as CEO.

Under Mr. Buckee, who retired last year, Talisman grew from a 1992 spinoff from BP PLC to become one of Canada's largest oil and gas companies, expanding rapidly in regions like the North Sea and - controversially - Sudan. All the while, it avoided unconventional resources like Alberta's oil sands or shale gas, which Mr. Buckee said were uneconomic to develop.

While Talisman had some big finds, it found reliable production growth difficult to come by, while its share price lagged those of rivals like EnCana Corp. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. that had made such reserves a focus. Investors began to suggest the firm should be broken up to maximize value.

Under the strategy unveiled yesterday, Talisman will now seek to "lengthen its stride" by demonstrating that it can sustainably grow over the long term, Mr. Manzoni said. The firm will divest assets in non-strategic areas and will no longer look to expand in the North Sea - previously a core growth area. Instead, it will look to develop Southeast Asia and Norway more rapidly, while it may also look to South America and North Africa for future growth.

The firm will also seek to develop shallow but wide unconventional natural gas deposits trapped in shale, sand and silt, an area it hasn't previously targeted. The advantage of that strategy is that Talisman - an established conventional gas producer - already holds a vast North American land base of 2.5 million acres whose unconventional reserves haven't even been evaluated, let alone tapped.

That acreage includes holdings in some of North America's hottest unconventional fields, such as Bakken in Saskatchewan and Montney in British Columbia. Talisman is also the largest landholder in Quebec, whose gas production potential, which could be unlocked with new extraction techniques, has been the subject of fevered speculation in recent months.

"Those are the big names, and we've got them," Mr. Manzoni told reporters after the annual meeting. The company now plans to run pilot projects in those areas to determine the size of reserves before coming up with a more detailed development plan, he said.
While Talisman is now looking at its unconventional resources and will consider making acquisitions, it still has no plans to get into the oil sands, Mr. Manzoni said.
TALISMAN ENERGY (TLM)