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Penn West Exploration Ltd. (previously known as Penn West Energy Trust) — still referred to as known as Penn West Petroleum in the media — was a prominent mid-sized Canadian oil and natural gas production company based in Calgary, Alberta. For a while it was one of the S&P/TSX 60, the sixty largest companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange. From 2005-2011 it was a Canadian royalty trust (CANROY), and as such did not pay federal income taxes. With a market capitalization in January 2008 of approximately US $9.5 billion, it was the largest oil and gas energy trust in North America. Penn West Exploration was previously an independent exploration and production company named as Penn West Petroleum Ltd. In May 2005, it converted into an income trust and operated under the trade name as Penn West Energy Trust. This was an entity which pays the majority of its earnings directly to shareholders (known as "unitholders" in a trust), in the form of dividends. Penn West has acquired several other income trusts since reorganizing as a trust in 2005: Vault, Canetic, and Petrofund. These acquisitions made it the single largest energy trust on the continent. In January 2011, Penn West Petroleum Ltd. converted back from an income trust into an exploration and production company. Penn West now operates under the trade name as Penn West Exploration. Penn West's oil and gas fields are distributed throughout the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, a region which is one of the world's largest petroleum reserves. Production comes from three main areas, the "Northern", "Central", and "Plains", areas which stretch from northeastern British Columbia, southeast across central Alberta to southern Saskatchewan, and then along the U.S. border to the border with the province of Manitoba. Penn West projects a production of equivalent per day throughout 2008, and claims a reserve lifetime of 10.2 years as of December 31, 2006, on the known and probable reserves of equivalent throughout their holdings. Of their output, a total of 44% has been natural gas, with oil and NGLs accounting for the remaining 56%.〔〔(Full description of Penn West at Reuters )〕 In addition, Penn West maintains a project to recover heavy oil from the Peace River Oil Sands.〔(Penn West Energy Trust - Oil and Gas Operations - Heavy Oil: Seal – North Central Area )〕 Penn West became a Canadian royalty trust (CANROY) in 2005. In 2011 the federal government phased out this tax advantaged structure and Penn West reverted to a corporation. The tax status of Canadian trusts changed in 2011 phasing out this tax advantaged structure when Jim Flaherty was the Canadian Finance Minister. Commencing in 2011, trusts would be taxed like all other corporations, at the full 31.5% rate; this would remove the advantage for which they were set up in the first place. Share prices of the trusts dropped immediately after the announcement, which was dubbed the "Halloween Massacre." What prompted the move was that the trusts were costing the Canadian government upwards of $500,000,000 each year in lost revenue.〔(Lawyer's Weekly: article on Canadian royalty trusts and the "Halloween massacre" )〕 Since the announcement of the Canadian "Tax Fairness Plan' approximately 90% of Canadian Royalty Trusts (CANROY's) have either converted to corporations, merged with other companies, or simply liquidated. While the Tax Fairness Plan did not require a conversion to corporate status most companies found it beneficial to do so. After conversion most companies were required to slash their dividend payouts to reflect the new level of taxation they would be required to pay.〔(The Yield Hunter )〕 ==Penn West investments== Penn West Energy Trust paid a high dividend, yielding an annual rate of between 15 and 16% in early 2008; in addition, it paid out monthly, a relative rarity for equities listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Since the Trust's assets are considered a depletable resource, its dividend payments are not taxed at the regular dividend rate, but rather as return of capital instead of return on investment. This is an additional tax advantage in the United States, and applies to all royalty trusts.〔〔(Wall Street Journal information page on PWE )〕 At the Penn West shareholders annual general meeting in May 2015 company executives "admitted to accounting irregularities last year. The company said it currently faces six different lawsuits from investors in Canada and one consolidated lawsuit in the United States. More recently, the company was hit with a lawsuit regarding allegations of stock option manipulation." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Penn West Exploration」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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