Husky Energy Is First To Ship Canadian Oil to India

By Chester Dawson 

CALGARY-- Husky Energy Inc. said Wednesday it shipped Canada's first-ever batch of oil to India as it and other Canadian producers seek to boost crude exports to more markets outside of the U.S.

Calgary-based Husky exported one million barrels of crude to state-owned Indian Oil Corp. from its White Rose offshore oil field in eastern Canada late last year, a move the company described as a test run and a precursor to increased exports to refiners in India.

"The sale to India did open up a potentially very large market for us," CEO Asim Ghosh said in a conference call.

Husky, which is majority owned by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, is one of Canada's largest oil producers and has upstream operations off the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland and also in the oil sands of Alberta in Western Canada.

The company produced 224,000 barrels a day of crude oil and nongas liquids last year, up from 207,000 barrels a day in 2012.

Mr. Ghosh said Husky is also interested in potentially exporting crude to India from its oil sand and other operations in Western Canada, possibly by making use of TransCanada Corp.'s proposed Energy East pipeline project to connect Alberta as far east as the coast of New Brunswick.

"Once Energy East is up, India becomes a cost-competitive destination for Canadian crude," he said.

That reflects Canadian producers' desire to fetch a higher price for their heavy crude overseas than they can currently get for shipments to the U.S., which is their largest export market but where Western Canadian Select trades at a substantial discount to other grades of oil.

The U.S. accounted for 2.4 million barrels a day of the total 2.5 million barrels a day of oil that Canada exported in the July-September quarter of last year, the most recent data available from Canada's National Energy Board.

Energy East is one of several new or expanded pipelines proposed for linking landlocked Alberta to eastern Canada or the country's Pacific coast.

"Getting Western crude to the world marketplace is in every Canadian's interest," Jim Quinn, the CEO of Port Saint John in New Brunswick, said Wednesday at an oil sands conference in Calgary.

Separately, Husky reported Wednesday that net income fell to $177 million Canadian dollars ($161 million), or C$0.18 per share, in the three months to December, down from C$474 million, or C$0.48 per share, in the year earlier period.

Write to Chester Dawson at [e-mail]

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