The US oil and gas company ConocoPhillips has announced that it will exercise its preemption rights to purchase a 50% stake in the Surmont oil sands asset, located in northern Alberta (Canada) and currently held by TotalEnergies EP Canada (TEPCA) for an amount of CAD4bn (US$3bn), with potential additional payments of up to CAD440m (US$325m). ConocoPhillips already holds a 50% interest as operator of Surmont and will therefore own 100% of the asset upon the finalisation of the transaction, which is expected by the third quarter of 2023.
With this move, the US group is effectively sidelining the Canadian company Suncor Energy, which was expected to purchase the stake. Indeed, in early May 2023, TotalEnergies had accepted an offer to sell all of its Canadian oil sands operations to Suncor Energy for CAD5.5bn (US$4.1bn), with potential additional payments of up to CAD600m (US$450m). TotalEnergies has announced that it is still ready to complete a transaction with Suncor Energy regarding the sale of TEPCA’s shares in its other Canadian oil sands assets, including Fort Hills (operated by Suncor and in which TEPCA currently holds a 24.6% share).
Alberta's oil sands proven reserves are equal to about 160.1 billion barrels. Crude bitumen production totalled about 3.3 mbbl/d in 2021.