Canada’s Ivanhoe Moves to Conquer Oil Sands
Ivanhoe Energy, one of financier Robert Friedland’s companies, plans to enter the Alberta oil sands. The company announced today that it will purchase properties held by Talisman Energy for C$105mln for its own development.
Meanwhile Talisman, which has not developed any of its oil sands properties, had said last week that it intended to sell C$2bln in properties around the world to consolidate its operations.
Ivanhoe is purchasing 3 leases in the Athabasca oil sands region and has so far signed a preliminary agreement with Talisman. Two of the properties have been assessed at about 300mln barrels of bitumen but the third is still unknown. Ivanhoe says it intends to produce about 30K to 50K BPD using its own method of converting bitumen to a lighter, more useable Crude.
Talisman will retain the right to purchase 20% interest in Ivanhoe’s operation for the next 3 years. Ivanhoe’s shares, up 39% over the past year, rose 10 cents on the news, to C$2.78 on the TSX.