PetroChina Buys Full Stake In MacKay River Oil Sands Project In Canada

TORONTO -- PetroChina, Asia's largest oil and gas company, is buying the 40 percent interest it didn't own in the MacKay River oil sands project in Canada for US$673 million.

The deal with Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., announced Tuesday, gives PetroChina full ownership in one of the newest of northern Alberta's oil sands developments. Athabasca had sold PetroChina a 60 percent stake in the project last year.

China's state-owned oil companies have invested billions of dollars in exploration or production ventures in Canada, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere.

Industry officials estimate Alberta could yield as much as 175 billion barrels of oil, which would make Canada third only to Saudi Arabia and Venezuela in crude oil reserves.

Comments

[Tikiman]

12:28 AM on 01/05/2012

Well, we've been sucking at the world's tit for many years now and we all start screaming because we have to share it. It's time to grow up folks and ween ourself off of momma's milk. This country needs to take a jump on green technology, it will save us financially, and it will help slow down climate change because of it, not to mention raising our standard in the world by proving we're innovative. It's our last chance.

[BluePhantom2]

08:21 PM on 01/04/2012

China is smart enough to take our money and invest it in thier own best interest. As opposed to the greens who would take our money and invest it in setting us back to the dark ages.

[blytzd]

08:34 PM on 01/04/2012

The dark ages is the smog from industrialization. Try to breathe in Beijing let alone see the horizon.

[OkieMon]

03:32 PM on 01/04/2012

the GOPers have conceded the prestent 10 trillion dollar renewable energy industry to the chinese and europeans.....impeach them all and let's get this country moving toward a green future NOW!!!!

[OkieMon]

03:31 PM on 01/04/2012

having trouble deciding which process.....tar sands extration of fracking is more polluting/toxic.....well they are both terrible....ban them both....

[Wib]

01:07 PM on 01/04/2012

And China wants to run a pipeline through this nation to take the oil to their nation from the Port of Houston. What a surprise! Remember when the Canadian PM said he wanted to get the oil out to the world? Now we know the world he was talking about. You can be sure that China's biggest supporters, despite all their screaming to the contrary, the Republicans want to try to force the construction of that pipeline to tet the oil to China.

[Vera Gottlieb]

05:37 AM on 01/04/2012

Quick! all North Americans start learning Chinese. The next 'empire' is taking over without firing a single shot.

[Anne Mccormick]

11:01 PM on 01/03/2012

well, now we know what the Chinese are thinking.

[Aladdin Sane1]

10:06 PM on 01/03/2012

A chart of who owns what in the Athabasca tar sands. Unfortunately, it has not been updated since 2007, and does not include the recent PetroChina acquisition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sands#Future_production

"Major Athabasca Oil Sands Projects (as of December 2007)"

[CanadaStan]

09:06 PM on 01/03/2012

25% of the oil in the pipeline would come from the Bakken.

[Tom Iarossi]

07:57 PM on 01/03/2012

Fabulous. So the GOTP wants us to allow a Canadian firm to build a dangerous pipeline across our main aquifer to carry Chinese-owned oil to Gulf ports for export to other countries, leading to a couple of thousand temporary jobs here.

I'm sorry, am I missing something?

[CanadaStan]

09:03 PM on 01/03/2012

Yeah, there are already 52 pipelines carrying oil across the aquifier.

And the US would have a ready source of oil when the mid east blows up again.

[Tom Iarossi]

09:50 PM on 01/03/2012

Oil from the tar sands? And if that's so, why do we need another? And why the falsehoods about job creation? A major point is that we need to reduce our use of oil, not become more dependent on it. Oil has controlled too much of who we are for far too long.

[Wanderland]

08:50 AM on 01/04/2012

We already have that source. Keystone 2 opens that source to other nations.

[Robert Lee Harrington]

07:56 PM on 01/03/2012

The Canadian Government ( good Prime Minister Harper) wants two pipelines for tar; Keystone XL to Texas to export to Europe and Latin America; and Northern Gateway to Katimat, BC to export to China. Both are bad ; both are opposed by native people and both have been delayed as a result.
Both will destroy the environment. Do not fall for Koch sock puppets who post here. Call or write the White House and tell President Obama to keep his promise to the American People and reject the flawed and dangerous Keystone XL application.

[klwarner]

06:28 PM on 01/03/2012

Yipes.

[pfm102943]

05:09 PM on 01/03/2012

People, energy independence means that we do not purchase energy from any other country but our own. the keystone pipeline only moves oil through the US and will continue on its way to South America and does not benefit the US at all. We dont even collect revenue on the oil that passes through this pipeline. AND POTUS won't or doesn't know how to utilize the resources we already have.

[tjdwill02]

06:13 PM on 01/03/2012

Oil is a fungible commodity. Oil independence means not to relying on foreign countries to control availability and thus the price. I has nothing to do with who actually produced the oil that we buy !

[blurredmolly]

06:49 PM on 01/03/2012

we don't keep it. and they are drilling more in the gulf now than when bush was in. you got nothin'.

[chango369]

04:03 PM on 01/03/2012

I view the factories in China, particularly the ones producing the cheap one or two usage crapola, as being something of a malignancy on the planet. Getting to the carbon locked in the tar sands is like a form of angiogenesis.

[Aladdin Sane1]

09:52 PM on 01/03/2012

Grr. "Getting to the carbon locked in the tar sands is like a form of angiogenes­is."

"Angiogenesis is the physiological process involving the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing vessels. Though there has been some debate over terminology, vasculogenesis is the term used for spontaneous blood-vessel formation, and intussusception is the term for the formation of new blood vessels by the splitting of exisiting ones.

Angiogenesis is a normal and vital process in growth and development, as well as in wound healing and in granulation tissue. However, it is also a fundamental step in the transition of tumors from a dormant state to a malignant one, leading to the use of angiogenesis inhibitors."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiogenesis

OK, now I know. Still don't see the analogy real well.

[chango369]

06:54 AM on 01/04/2012

A tumor needs blood in order to grow. In the analogy, the oil derived from the tar sands is like blood, allowing the factories in China, along with squandering consumption (the tumor), to grow.

[baxtron]

02:15 PM on 01/03/2012

China seems pretty clean, so this should go well. Can you have child labor in Alberta?