By Dan Healing
CALGARY ? Several oilsands companies may be talking about a joint venture with India?s biggest energy explorer, but analysts are betting that it?s Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.
Or Cenovus Energy Inc. Or ?and this is a long-shot ?troubled Opti Canada Inc., which is quickly running out of money as the minority partner in the underperforming Long Lake, Alta., oilsands project it shares with Nexen Inc.
New Delhi-based Oil and Natural Gas Corp. is in talks to acquire oilsands reserves in Canada and may increase its investments in Kazakhstan to help offset declining production, Bloomberg News reported this week. In the story, the energy explorer?s chairman and managing director A.K. Hazarika is quoted as saying, ?discussions are going on at good speed? in Canada, without naming companies the state-run firm is in talks with.
?Domestically we are not able to cope, and oil demand is rising. Easy oil is not available and we have to move to unconventional areas.?
Several international oil companies have taken stakes in the oilsands recently ? led by the Chinese ? and there are plenty of opportunities remaining.
The previous week, Cenovus Energy Inc. of Calgary said it had struck a committee to find by year-end a partner in a joint venture or other arrangement to accelerate its oilsands developments.
Sveinung Svarte, the president and chief executive of Athabasca, said his company is looking for partners and he knows that the Indian company is in the market.
But he wouldn?t confirm talks.
?If it was, I probably couldn?t answer you anyway so let me answer more generic,? he said. ?We are talking to companies. I cannot name who they are but obviously oilsand is on everybody?s agenda again because they realize it?s a great resource that is environmentally justifiable and you will see more oilsands investments in the future.?
Athabasca sold a 60 per cent share in its MacKay River and Dover thermal projects in Alberta for $1.9 billion to PetroChina in 2009 but it is seeking matches to share in the risks and rewards of its four other proposed projects in the Fort McMurray, Alta., area.
Analyst Phil Skolnick of Canaccord Genuity said the Indian company has been rumoured before to be looking for oilsands investments but the pressure is on them to actually move this time.
?We?ve been hearing for years and nothing?s really happened,? he said. ?But there has to be a sense of urgency now given that (South) Korea, China, Thailand are now in there and oil prices are above $100 (US per barrel). It probably sets up a situation where you want to make a move sooner rather than later.?
Randy Ollenberger, an oilsands analyst for BMO Capital Markets, said the joint venture partner would have to have size. ?It could be any number of companies,? he said. ?It?s probably gotta be at least a billion barrels (of contingent reserves).?
ONGC lost a bid to buy ExxonMobil Corp.?s stake in an Angolan oilfield in March and has lagged behind its Chinese rivals as the world?s most populous nations seek overseas assets to boost energy security. Indian companies have announced US$6.6-billion of energy acquisitions since January 2010, compared with at least US$36.9-billion US of bids by companies such as PetroChina Co. and CNOOC Ltd., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
India?s oil import costs rose about 17% to US$101.7-billion in the year ended March 31, Hazarika said.
?To offset this burden, we are looking for equity oil outside the country,? he said.
Production from oilsands is viable at crude above US$75 a barrel, Hazarika said. Such ventures assure steady output and returns for at least 20 years, he said.
http://business.financialpost.com/2011/05/06/...plorer-eyes-oilsands/ -----------
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