CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - Dec. 15, 2008) - Nexen Inc. announces that it has acquired ownership of an additional 924,562 exchangeable limited partnership units (exchangeable units) of Canexus Limited Partnership ("Canexus LP"), a subsidiary of Canexus Income Fund (the "Fund"). This represents 2.07% of the total exchangeable units currently outstanding. Nexen has acquired these additional exchangeable units over the past nine months through participation in Canexus LP and the Fund's Distribution Reinvestment Plan (the "DRIP").
Including the additional exchangeable units, Nexen now owns 56,637,539 exchangeable units which are exchangeable on a one-for-one basis for 63.49% of the trust units of the Fund. On August 18, 2005, Nexen owned 52,285,714 exchangeable units, which were exchangeable for 63.5% of the outstanding trust units of the Fund at that time. On September 16, 2005, Nexen announced that the underwriters of the Fund's initial public offering had exercised a portion of their over-allotment option. The exercise of that option reduced Nexen's indirect ownership in the Fund to approximately 61.4%. The trust units of the Fund that are issuable upon exchange have been reserved for listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The acquisition of exchangeable units was made by Nexen in accordance with its continued investment in the Fund and Nexen may acquire additional exchangeable units in the future pursuant to the terms of the DRIP. Nexen may in the future increase or decrease its holdings of exchangeable units as it may deem appropriate in light of the circumstances then existing.
This news release is being issued pursuant to securities legislation in each province of Canada and will be filed on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR). The report required under National Instrument 62-103 will be filed on SEDAR under Canexus Income Fund's profile at www.sedar.com.
Nexen Inc. is an independent, Canadian-based global energy company, listed on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under the symbol NXY. We believe we are uniquely positioned for growth in the North Sea, Western Canada (including the Athabasca oil sands of Alberta and unconventional gas resource plays such as coalbed methane and shale gas), deep-water Gulf of Mexico, offshore West Africa and the Middle East.
