PetroChina controls Canadian oil sand project

Updated: 2012-01-04 13:24

By Yu Hongyan (chinadaily.com.cn)

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Canada's Athabasca Oil Sands Corp said it has sold the remaining 40 percent of interest in the MacKay River oil sands project to a subsidiary of PetroChina, a move that will render a Chinese company full ownership of such a project for the first time.

The deal with PetroChina International Investment Limited was worth C$680 million ($666 million), Athabasca said in its press release.

Canadian regulators previously approved PetroChina to buy 60 percent of the project for C$1.9 billion in November 2011, according to Xinhuanet.

The MacKay River project is located in northern Alberta of Canada, a region that contains 85 percent of the world's oil sand.

The first phase of the project will begin in 2014, with a daily output of 35,000 barrels of oil. Its max daily production is expected to be 150,000 barrels, according to Xinhuanet.