Thailand has made its first foray into Alberta’s oilsands through a US$2.28 billion joint venture with Norway’s Statoil, which has been developing a relatively small but controversial project in northern Alberta.
Statoil says PTT Exploration and Production will buy a 40 per cent stake in its Kai Kos Dehseh oilsands project, which is designed to produce about 10,000 barrels per day when the first phase moves into production early next year. The firm is awaiting regulatory approval to boost output to 40,000 barrels per day.
The global energy giant, which is partly owned by the Norwegian government, will hold onto the other 60 per cent of the project, remain the operator and be responsible for marketing its production.
"This transaction underlines the quality of our Canadian resources and demonstrates our ability to create value as an oilsands operator," Statoil?s chief executive officer, Helge Lund, said in a statement Monday.
Environmentalists and representatives from aboriginal groups in northeastern Alberta travelled to Norway last May to urge Statoil shareholders to pull the company out of the oilsands.
However, shareholders voted 98.6 per cent to reject a motion put forward by Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund demanding the company stop developing the project.
Statoil’s position is that it is using technology that will reduce the environmental impact from extracting the bitumen, the tarry substance that needs to be heavily processed into a lighter type of crude refineries can handle.
PTT and Statoil share the same environmental ambitions, said Statoil’s Canadian president, Lars Christian Bacher, in an interview.
"We view PTT E&P as a good match. Technology development has always been a part of Statoil’s DNA. I feel we are on the same page with PTT," he said.
PTT is the latest Asian player to make a move in the oilsands, the world’s largest crude reserves outside of Saudi Arabia. Chinese, Korean and Japanese investors have all snapped up stakes in various joint-ventures.
"It’s just another example showing that oilsands is viewed as a highly valued commodity by the international energy sector," Bacher said of the deal announced Monday.
The proposed transaction comes amid some confusion about the Canadian federal government’s policy towards foreign ownership of major natural resources since Industry Minister Tony Clement killed the US$38.6 billion takeover of PotashCorp (TSX:POT) by Anglo-Australian mining company BHP Billiton Ltd.
While the Kai Kos Dehseh oilsands project is nowhere near as valuable or unique as PotashCorp, the world’s largest producer of a key fertilizer ingredient, there have been questions about how receptive Canada is to investments in the oilsands by state-controlled companies.
But Bacher said he does not foresee any issues on the regulatory front.
"This is not an acquisition as such. This is a partnership being entered and you have seen a lot of deals like this historically and I see this not being any different from any of those," Bacher said.
Statoil took control of Kai Kos Deseh in 2007 through its acquisition of North American Oil Sands Corp. The company uses high-pressure steam to draw the bitumen from deep underground, instead of traditional mining techniques.
PTT, Thailand’s only petroleum exploration and production company, is 65 per cent owned by conglomerate PTT Public Company Ltd,, which is controlled by the government of Thailand.
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