May 2009 Issue
The merger of Suncor and Petro-Canada may be the first of many deals in the oil sands, with the majors looking to build positions while share prices are low, writes WJ Simpson
SUNCOR Energy, Canada’s pioneer oil-sands company, is to take over one-time state-owned Petro-Canada in a deal the two sides code-named Quantum. The transaction will create North America’s fifth-largest oil and gas producer, with a market value of about C$50bn ($41bn). Apart from their own quantum leap forward, the two companies have also stirred prospects of consolidation elsewhere in the floundering oil-sands sector (PE 3/09 p26).
For the two companies the prize is controlling 26.5bn barrels of oil; the largest suite of oil-sands holdings in the world; daily production of 0.68m barrels of oil equivalent; and an international reach that embraces the North Sea, Libya, Syria, and Trinidad and Tobago. Their joint Canadian operations cover the energy sector, from the Arctic to the east coast offshore, shale gas, refineries, a chain of retail outlets and even wind …Click here to continue reading Merger hints at oil-sands revival