Kimmeridge eyes more Canada oil and gas activism amid trade war, underperformance

By David French

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Kimmeridge Energy Management will pursue more activism among Canadian oil and gas producers, a senior executive told Reuters on Tuesday, as it targets underperforming companies and potential benefits emanating from the trade war with the United States.

President Donald Trump has ratcheted up tariffs on his country's northern neighbor, although Canadian oil and gas exports to the U.S. have so far received fewer penalties.

The tensions should instigate fresh thinking to boost Canadian energy exports, especially of liquefied natural gas, to other countries, according to Kimmeridge managing partner Mark Viviano. He said that would benefit operators' valuations in the long term.

"Ultimately, we think (tariffs and the trade war are) going to be long-term positive for the Canadian industry, because it will force them to look outside the U.S. and diversify their export markets into Asia," Viviano said in an interview on the sidelines of the CERAWeek conference.

Kimmeridge last week struck a settlement with Advantage Energy, after the Calgary, Alberta-based oil and gas producer named two new independent directors and set up a special committee to study a possible sale of the company.

Viviano said Kimmeridge expects to make further investments, given Canada's upstream industry is ripe for activism, although it has no current positions in Canada outside of Advantage.

"We think that it needs to be consolidated, given how fragmented the industry is, and we think we have a number of poor-performing management teams and boards which are preoccupied with growing production instead of generating shareholder value," he said.

Kimmeridge has been a leading force in pursuing activism in the U.S. oil and gas sector in recent years, targeting many of the same issues Viviano sees prevalent in Canada today.

It has been on the sidelines in the U.S. for the last year, however, and currently owns only one U.S. producer, Expand Energy, due to legacy positions in Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy prior to their merger to create Expand.

Slumping U.S. equity markets, combined with lower crude prices, have pushed down valuations of many small and mid-sized U.S. producers by more than 20% in the last month.

"Clearly we're seeing a significant amount of volatility and a tremendous amount of underperformance in some of the smaller and mid-sized exploration and production companies," Viviano said.

"So we have capital to put to work, and we think the market is coming our way."

(Reporting by David French in Houston; Editing by Nia Williams)