ConocoPhillips has cut a deal to sell all of its Clyden oil sands property-a total of 226,000 acres--in Canada to ExxonMobil Canada and Imperial Oil for $720 million.
The deal, announced on Thursday, 8 August, means Exxon Mobil Canada and Imperial Oil will buy 100% of ConocoPhillips Clyden oil sands stake, with Exxon acquiring 72.5% and Imperial acquiring 27.5%.
So really, it's largely an Exxon deal because Imperial is 70% owned by Exxon Mobil.
ConocoPhillips is on an asset purge, hoping to raise $13.8 billion through the sale of its non-core assets. The company enjoys that status of having the largest oil sands holdings in the area, with a total of 1.1 million acres and 16 billion barrels of oil.
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The deal should be closed by the end of September.
ConocoPhillip's shareholders will be pleased-the money raised in the asset purge will go to dividends and stock buybacks.
Overall, while the supermajors are underperforming the small shale producers in the US, ConocoPhillips is eyeing a return to the non-integrated days. In 2012, it spun off its downstream assets into Phillips 66.
By. Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com
Charles is a writer for Oilprice.com More