The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, Sept. 8, edition that last week, London-based Shell validated Canada's potential as an energy superpower by closing its $22-billion takeover (including debt) of ARC Resources. The Globe's Andrew Willis writes that Shell's global operations give chief executive officer Wael Sawan the freedom to invest in energy projects anywhere in the world. He chose Canada. Shell led the consortium that built Canada's first deep water gas terminal, the $18-billion LNG Canada facility in Kitimat, B.C., which opened last year. Shell's embrace of Canada as a reliable energy producer, including the bet-the-house investment in ARC, signalled that a new round of mergers and acquisitions are reshaping the domestic oil patch. The biggest players in energy all want more exposure to the massive gas-rich Montney region, which stretches across 130,000 square kilometres of Northeastern British Columbia and Northwestern Alberta. Acquisitors in the oil patch, such as Canadian Natural Resources, are always looking for opportunities to buy properties on the cheap. CNRL executive chair Murray Edwards made his fortune buying oil sands projects from global players that wanted to exit Alberta, at any price.