Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Project approval starts option clock for Athabasca

Project approval starts option clock for Athabasca

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Athabasca Oil Sands Corp has won regulatory capitulation for a MacKay River oil sands project, opening a one-month window that could outcome in a state-owned Chinese partner holding full control of a development.

As partial of a prior appropriation deal, Athabasca and a joint-venture partner, PetroChina, have options to trade a Canadian company's 40 percent seductiveness in a 150,000 tub a day plan in northern Alberta during a strike cost of C$680 million ($665 million).

If possibly a put or call options get exercised, Athabasca would have to repay loans modernized by PetroChina, that totaled about C$468 million during a finish of September.

With approvals from a Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board and a provincial sourroundings method in hand, both sides have 30 days to confirm either to lift a trigger on a put or call options. Athabasca has pronounced that if options for MacKay River and another incomparable project, called Dover, are exercised, 3 of a other, 100-percent owned, prospects would be entirely funded.

It is not famous nonetheless if Athabasca or PetroChina will practice their options for a oil sands projects, that paint a latest in a rush of developments blending Canadian resources and Asian money.

Athabasca has pronounced that if all positions sojourn a same, it would spend C$187 million on MacKay River in 2012. Construction on a 35,000 bpd initial proviso is scheduled to start subsequent month with initial prolongation slated for 2014.

MacKay River is a steam-assisted sobriety drainage project, in that steam is pumped into a belligerent to disencumber adult a tar-like bitumen so it can upsurge to a aspect in wells.

PetroChina is one of several Asian companies with investments in Canadian oil sands resources and developers.

China, Thailand, South Korea and Japan are among countries flocking to Canada as a fast source of appetite supply and one that has welcomed unfamiliar investments. A obstacle so far, however, has been a miss of a supply track to a Pacific from a oil sands deposits of Alberta.

Next month, open hearings are scheduled to start for a initial new plan directed during shipping vast volumes of oil sands-derived wanton to Canada's West Coast, Enbridge Inc's C$5.5 billion Northern Gateway proposal.

Athabasca shares were off 12 Canadian cents during C$12 late in a event on Wednesday on a Toronto Stock Exchange.

(Additional Reporting by Aftab Ahmed in Bangalore)

(Editing by Peter Galloway)


News referensi http://news.yahoo.com/athabasca-oil-sands-gets-regulatory-nod-key-alberta-120053025.html

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