Despite falling short of the record C$16.9 billion set in 2005, the 2006 financings for the Canadian oil industry proved robust with C$16.2 billion in capital being raised. Ryan Ferguson Young, an associate with Calgary-based energy investment banker Sayer Energy Advisors says part of the decline was due to that energy-trust financings decreased to C$4.8 billion from its C$5.7 billion record in 2005. Meanwhile, equity financings set a new record at C$8 billion. Young adds that the robust financings of 2006 are unlikely to be repeated in 2007. "With lower commodity prices, a number of E&P companies with stretched balance sheets, trusts becoming fully taxable in four years and recent environmental concerns raised by the federal government and social-interest groups, the amount of financings completed in the Canadian oil industry in 2007 could decline," he says. For more on this, see the April issue of Oil and Gas Investor. For a subscription, call 713-260-6441.

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