Updates
September 1, 2012: Is Kuwait buying a piece of the Athabasca?
Original Post
I won't ever be able to find my post, but some time ago I joked that China would someday buy the entire Bakken.Maybe that joke wasn't too far off base.
But this is a bigger story, a much bigger story, for a different reason, and I haven't seen anyone else talk about it yet.
Today, from Oil & Gas Journal:
PetroChina snaps up remainder of AOSC's MacKay River project
China’s state-owned PetroChina will be 100% owner of Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.’s MacKay River project at a total price of $2.5 billion (Can.) after paying a further $680 million (Can.) for the remaining 40% of the firm’s shares.
AOSC said it exercised an option to sell its interest in the MacKay River project in Alberta to PetroChina, which in late 2009 bought a 60% stake for $1.9 billion (Can.) (OGJ, Sept. 7, 2009, Newsletter).
Production from the development is slated to start in 2014, with an initial capacity of 35,000 b/d, eventually rising to a top-end output of 150,000 b/d. Canada’s government last month gave its stamp of approval for the start of construction.
PetroChina’s purchase of the MacKay River shares marks the third investment by a Chinese state-owned firm into oil sands projects in Canada, the largest being the $4.65 billion (Can.) paid in 2010 by China Petrochemical Corp. for a 9% stake in Syncrude.
Canada’s regulators do not need to approve the sale nor is it likely they would anyway. Canada’s government and petroleum industry have been frustrated by repeated delays by the US government in approving the Keystone XL pipeline project.
That delay by the US—which is Canada’s only major oil export market—has brought a rethink in Ottawa. Indeed, the Canadians now believe that there best interest lies in diversifying its oil exports to other markets.
