česky  english 

Advanced search
Article notification Print Decrease font size Increase font size

LAMA Energy Group investment in Canada

(This article expired 09.09.2015.)

"While other Czech miners are expanding eastwards we will try to expand west." This strategic decision was made by the Czech company LAMA ENERGY GROUP, owned by entrepreneur Petr Lamich, and thanks to their long-term connections in the oil business and excellent references, they have managed to find partners in Canada with whom they started Petrolama Energy Canada Inc. targeting both upstream and downstream opportunities.

"We got in touch with a small group of Canadian crude oil marketing professionals that specialized in brokering crude oil and petroleum products produced in Canada led by Scott Holmes. He and his colleagues had the perfect experience, market knowledge and vision, but lacked with whom they would be able to work with as professionals and as people," said majority owner of LAMA ENERGY GROUP Petr Lamich.

Subsequently, in 2011 Petrolama Energy Canada, Inc., was founded, led by Scott Holmes as president. In addition to the continuation of trade in petroleum products, the investment in Petrolama Energy Canada allowed LAMA ENERGY GROUP to participate in a project to build a crude oil terminal for oil processing in Alida, Saskatchewan. Construction began in November 2012 and was completed in July 2013, and was fully operational by September 2013. Currently, 17,500 barrels of oil per day are processed at the terminal and its performance will increase to 20,000 barrels in the near future.

Another project of Petrolama was the acquisition of a Natural Gas Liquids business from Tombstone Energy Solutions Ltd. in December 2012. With this acquisition, LAMA acquired a fleet of about 200 rail cars to transport oil and liquefied natural gas, whose capacity is used for delivery to customers in Canada and the USA. "With the help of this transport and our other operations we are able to trade approximately 15,000 barrels of oil per day," said Scott Holmes.  

Perhaps the bigest potential is LAMA´s upstream SAGD investment. Canadian company Petrolama Namur Oil Sands Exploration, Inc., a subsidiary of Czech company LAMA ENERGY GROUP, owns a petroleum and natural gas lease in Northern Alberta and is gradually preparing for commercial development of the property.  Up until now, 11 wells have been drilled and an additional 8 - 10 wells are scheduled to be drilled at the end of 2014 and beginning of 2015. The results of the previous test wells confirmed a capacity of at least 10,000 extractable barrels per day for over 30 years from the formation. Currently, ongoing planning and permitting for the construction of the oil treating facility is taking place. "We expect that the first barrels from the property will enter the market in 2018 or 2019," said Scott Holmes.

About Lama Energy Group

Czech company LAMA ENERGY GROUP is now more than twenty years old. It started as a business owned by Czech entrepreneur Petr Lamich, which began in the early 1990s after the fall of the communist regime, to deal with petroleum commodities in Central Europe. In 2007 LAMA acted as a supplier to the newly liberalized Czech gas market and later expanded into the electricity markets, first in the corporate segment and later in residential communities. Since 2010, LAMA has been actively engaged in the search for new oil and gas fields in the Czech Republic and their opening of viable commercial mining producing properties through its subsidiary LAMA OIL & GAS.

In 2013 to the group's first production capacity was added: The Otrokovice Heating Plant, which produces heat and electricity via cogeneration for the region of the city of Otrokovice and its surroundings area. This year there was also an additional investment to strengthen the base of our end use consumers: The establishment of Czech mobile virtual operator LAMA MOBILE, so LAMA can offer bundled services (supply of gas, electricity and mobile services) for households and commercial businesses. The holding company structure was reorganized in 2012 and Peter Lamich remains the majority owner.

Total Revenues for LAMA Energy Group of last year was 857 million CAD and the holding's assets amounted to 334 million CAD. Two thirds of the revenue was generated by the Canadian portion of the business.  On the Czech Republic market LAMA ENERGY GROUP is number two in oil and natural gas mining and is one of the top ten suppliers of gas and electricity for corporations and households, with a total of over 60,000 supply points.

Prospecting in complex geological conditions in Central Europe is extremely challenging and difficult and the landscape is densely populated. To solve this issue drillings are usually done at an angle. Thanks to this tough school Czech geological experts were used for evaluation of potential of petroleum and natural gas deposits in Alberta where Petrolama operates.

The volumes associated with the mining of petroleum commodities in the Czech Republic are of a small scale compared to Canada, (for the year 2013, 25 thousand barrels of oil and 46 million m3 of gas were extracted in the Czech Republic), but they are an important reference and provide experience for LAMA ENERGY GROUP in its endeavors around the world.

The name of the group „LAMA" (Czech word for llama) originates from name of the founder Petr Lamich. Next to the company HQ in Hradec nad Moravici, Czech Republic, is small llama farm.