	offer for dome may short circuit its debt talks a billion dlr offer for dome petroleum ltd dmp mo by transcanada pipelines ltd trp to may short circuit dome s restructuring plan and open the door for more takeover bids oil analysts said dome is trying to get approval for a plan to refinance debt of more than billion dlrs by july when an interim debt plan that allowed the canadian oil and gas firm to defer substantial payments to creditors will expire analysts said transcanada s bid signals dome s debtholders that an alternative exists to dome s debt plan dome announced its plan to major creditors as well as public noteholders in march after several months of delicate negotiations transcanada s proposal amounts to a quasi debt restructuring oil analyst doug gowland of brown baldwin nisker ltd said from toronto calgary based dome s restructuring plan would allow creditors to convert debt to common shares under a formula yet to be negotiated payments on remaining debt would be linked to cash flow generated by assets pledged against the debt the weakness of the whole debt refinancing proposal is that even with approval of creditors there is no assurance that dome will in fact be able to repay all of its debt obligations said wilf gobert an oil analyst for peters and co ltd in calgary transcanada s announcement came as a surprise since dome was waiting for responses from creditors on its proposed refinancing packages gobert said the transcanada proposal could open the bidding for dome since other potential buyers were probably waiting for lenders to agree to a restructuring he added i would think that the debtholders would want to entertain any and all offers for dome gobert said dome spokesman david annesley said in new york that transcanada s announcement could be seen as an attempt to fix the bidding price for dome and an effort to preclude other possible buyers from making an offer by drawing attention to us in our discussions it means that others may be a little reluctant to come forward he said dome does not consider transcanada s proposal a formal offer because the pipeline utility s announcement breached a confidential agreement between the two companies he said dome responded to the statement by suspending discussions with transcanada in order to pursue talks with other unidentified parties however dome said its management and financial advisers would evaluate all proposals including transcanada s gowland said transcanada s offer is probably a fair price for the company s mln acres of oil and gas land holdings however he said not enough financial details are known about dome s debt restructuring to compare the value of transcanada s proposed offer reuter 
