As a former Product and Marketing Manager for a Canadian major metals manufacturer, I can attest to the need for a sensible integrated approach to any market place.

In the case of a company such as Connacher, this means the elimination in so far as possible, to future potential threats to profitability and business continuation. One such threat would be the availability of Nat Gas at an affordable price. This risk was mitigated by the Luke acquisiton.

Another vulnerability to an oil producer comes from the "crack" tollage to refine the raw commodity bitumen into marketable product or acquire a compensatory alternative. Even worse is the unavailability of market capacity to transform your raw material (in this case bitumen) into useable, marketable product. This potential vulnerability can be a show stopper.

These are examples of two potential threats to a company such as Connacher which have the potential to threaten business continuation and therefore enterprise survivability.

In the case of Connacher, their was present the awareness of , planning for, and ability to protect against threats which could threaten business continuation. One might give up a small percent here or there, however generally a hedge also serves to preserve the "full value added stream". It was these attributes in Connachers approach which actually led me to invest in Connacher.

Brian