Call it the ‘Full Montney’.Canada’s largest natural gas producer got a little bigger on Monday after it announced a $1.3 billion friendly takeover of Crew Energy in anticipation of large scale LNG exports off the West Coast later this year.Crew is one of Calgary’s oldest junior producers, having been in business for an almost unheard of 21 years, and has assembled a dominant position in the northeast British Columbia Montney shale play.The Montney is considered an ‘unconventional’ gas play because it requires hydraulic fracking to release the gas. It’s also called the ‘Deep Basin’ because wells regularly reach 3,000 metres or 10,000 feet in total depth, with horizontal sections a kilometre or more long..That region is expected to supply the lion’s share of the gas for Shell’s LNG Canada project when it comes on stream later this year. Indeed, Tourmaline COE Mike Rose is a former Shell alumni before starting Tourmaline and Duvernay Oil — which was sold to Shell in 2008 for $5.9 billion.And while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has questioned the business case for LNG, “Tourmaline believes this is an opportune time for consolidating natural gas assets prior to imminent major growth in the North American LNG business and acceleration of natural gas-powered electrical generation requirements across the continent,” it said in a statement.The all-stock deal includes the assumption of $240 million in debt and represents a 70% premium to Crew’s average 20-day weighted share price.In a news release, Tourmaline said the deal would help it achieve a long-term goal of producing 750,000 barrels of oil equivalent over the next five years, with further growth opportunities over the next decade..“Tourmaline's scale, execution capability and ability to generate strong free cash flow in all parts of the commodity cycle will allow Crew shareholders to realize the material embedded upside on an accelerated timeline," said Tourmaline CEO Mike Rose.The deal is expected to close in October, in time for the winter drilling season and the startup of first gas exports off the West Coast.In conjunction with the deal, Tourmaline hiked its dividend by two cents to 35 cents or $1.40 per year.Markets liked what they saw, sending Tourmaline shares up nearly 3% to $59.78 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Crew’s shares were up 73% to $6.75.
