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Sinopec buys into Canadian oil sands
By Wang Ying (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-06-01 08:42
China Petrochemical Corp, the parent company of Sinopec, and a Canadian
company yesterday announced the refiner will pay 105 million Canadian dollars
(US$84 million) for a stake in Canada's Northern Lights oil sands project.
SinoCanada, a subsidiary of the Sinopec Group, sealed a series of agreements
with Canada-based Synenco Energy Inc to buy 40 per cent of the project located
in the Athabasca region of Northeast Canada's Alberta Province, according to a
Sinopec statement.
Synenco owns the remaining 60 per cent share, and will operate the project as
the managing partner, it said.
Oil sands are composed of sand, bitumen, mineral rich clays and water.
Bitumen, after upgrading, can be used to produce a light crude oil.
The 4.5 billion Canadian dollar (US$3.6 billion) Northern Lights project,
which includes oil sands mining and bitumen extraction, has a production
capacity of 100,000 barrels a day of synthetic crude oil or 5 million tons
annually, the statement said.
Synenco was established in 1999 to evaluate land in the Athabasca oil sands
region. From 2003, the company started preparatory work on plans to develop the
Northern Lights project.
"Sinopec is committed to the long-term development of the project in Canada,
and we are very pleased to be a partner in its evolution," said Mou Shuling,
chairman of the board of directors, Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration
and Production Corp.
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