	dome dmp benefits from takeover speculation shares of dome petroleum ltd posted their biggest gain in months in the u s and canada as stock markets foresaw a takeover tug of war beginning for the debt heavy company dome rose to on the american stock exchange and gained cents to canadian dlrs on the toronto stock exchange where it was the most active stock it rose as high as dlrs in toronto during the day in recent months dome has normally moved by only a few cents per day transcanada pipelines yesterday announced a billion dlr canadian billion u s bid for all of dome s assets but dome which is based in calgary alberta said it is also still talking with two other companies which it refuses to identify market analysts today said the other two firms are believed to be foreign oil companies noting that transcanada yesterday stressed that its bid is a canadian solution to the financial difficulties of dome petroleum the talk is about conoco which is controlled by dupont dd and atlantic richfield co arc which sold its canadian interest in and could be getting back in said wilf gobert of peters and co ltd david bryson of moss lawson and co also noted that british petroleum plc bp is mentioned as a possible buyer despite bp s u s dlr per share bid two weeks ago for the percent of standard oil co srd it does not already own calgary based independent analyst james hamilton has said in recent reports that amoco corp an has also been in talks with dome representatives of atlantic richfield british petroleum conoco and amoco were not immediately available for comment gobert characterized the market action in dome today as awfully optimistic given transcanada s offer to give current dome shareholders stock in a new subsidiary which it valued at dlrs canadian per common share under the offer current dome common and preferred shareholders would own pct of the new subsidiary which would own and operate all dome s former assets transcanada would own pct however bryson said the market may be looking at the potential for shares in a publicly traded subsidiary the transcanada offer has quite a bit of upside potential for dome he said gobert said he believes the transcanada offer is at the upper end of what i thought somebody would pay for dome the transcanada proposal would pay dome s creditors billion canadian dlrs billion u s dlrs with another one billion canadian dlrs mln u s dlrs available to secured creditors if the dome subsidiary earns profits above a certain level transcanada would not detail the profit level dome currently is seeking to restructure about six billion canadian dlrs billion u s dlrs in debt which it took on several years ago when oil prices were high and the company wanted to expand there has been speculation that dome s assets are capable of supporting debt of three to four billion dlrs so on that basis the transcanada offer would be at the upper end of that gobert said dome s debt troubles have often obscured the fact that it is a major player in the canadian oil and gas field it holds reserves of about mln barrels of crude oil and billion cubic feet of natural gas the company also owns or has an interest in mln acres of oil and gas exploration land in the province of alberta the heart of canada s oil industry dome owns or has an interest in a total of mln acres of land across canada the company also has tax credits of about billion dlrs canadian billion dlrs u s it reported a loss of billion dlrs billion dlrs u s believed to be the largest ever by a canadian company reuter 
