Cenovus Energy Inc on Wednesday announced it will pay C$17.7 billion (US$13.2 billion) for most of ConocoPhillips’ Canadian assets.
Houston-based ConocoPhillips is the latest company to reduce exposure to Canada’s oil sands — the world’s third-largest oil reserves.
Cenovus CEO Brian Ferguson called it a “transformational acquisition” for the Calgary-based company.
The deal includes ConocoPhillips’s 50 percent interest in FCCL Partnership, an oil sands venture between the two companies in northern Alberta, as well as the majority of ConocoPhillips’s Deep Basin conventional assets in Alberta and British Columbia.
The combined assets have forecast production this year of approximately 298,000 barrels of oil equivalent daily.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC earlier this month sold most of its oil sands holdings to Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.
Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said then the deal would allow the company to focus on assets such as deep water oil and gas that offer higher returns on capital. Oil sands are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit.
ConocoPhillips chairman and CEO Ryan Lance called his company’s deal with Cenovus a “win-win” and said it would allow ConocoPhillips to reduce its debt.
“ConocoPhillips Canada will now focus exclusively on our Surmont oil sands and the liquids-rich Blueberry-Montney unconventional asset,” Lance said in a statement.
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter. It will be financed with C$14.1 billion in cash and 208 million Cenovus shares, according to the statement.
That will make Conoco into Cenovus’ largest shareholder, with about a 25 percent stake.
With about 440,000 barrels a day of capacity after the acquisitions, Cenovus will be the third-largest oil-sands producer by the end of the decade, behind Suncor Energy Inc and Canadian Natural, according to company statements.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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