Two of Canada's biggest oilsands producers tightened their grip on northern Alberta in back-to-back announcements, with Cenovus Energy Inc. agreeing to buy Athabasca Oil Corp. and Suncor Energy Inc. selling a group of East Coast offshore assets.
Cenovus said Monday it will pay $12 per share in cash and stock for Athabasca, in a deal valued at $5.7 billion including debt.
A day earlier, Suncor said it is selling stakes in three offshore Newfoundland projects for $1.2 billion to U.K. North Sea producer Ithaca Energy PLC and raising its share buybacks by 50 per cent.
Both Calgary-based companies cast the moves as a sharper focus on the oilsands.
"This transaction strengthens our position in one of the world's premier oil-producing regions and is a natural extension of our oilsands strategy," Cenovus chief executive Jon McKenzie said in a statement.
Suncor chief executive Rich Kruger said his company is "aligning our portfolio around our competitive advantages," underpinned by "large-scale, long-life oilsands resources."
Cenovus shares closed three per cent lower as investors weighed the deal's impact on the company's debt.
One of the Athabasca assets Cenovus would acquire is an undeveloped oilsands project that could be the first greenfield development sanctioned in the oilsands region since 2013.
The potential growth project may have been of particular interest to Cenovus at a time when the federal and Alberta governments appear aligned to expand Canadian crude oil production for the proposed Pacific Link pipeline to the West Coast.
As investors processed news of the sale, Athabasca shares closed almost 14 per cent higher to $12.01.
Suncor closed down one percent to $97.89. The stock is up 66 per cent this year and is trading near its 52-week high of $100.24. Shares of Ithaca rose about three per cent in London.
Cenovus' Athabasca acquisition adds about 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of production, including thermal oilsands output near Cenovus's existing Christina Lake, May River and Thornbury assets.
The term thermal refers to the heat-based extraction process used to lower the viscosity of underground oilsands bitumen.
Cenovus said Athabasca's two key assets — its Leismer and Corner projects — hold more than 75 years of proved and probable reserves.
The Corner asset, the potential greenfield growth project, is expected to cost about $560 million for eventual production of about 15,000 barrels a day.
The company targeted production starting in 2029 and reaching full capacity by the end of that year.
To limit costs, Athabasca planned to build Corner in small modular phases, using shared roads, camp facilities and staff with its nearby Leismer operation.
Athabasca has not yet formally sanctioned the project because it was waiting to learn about financial incentives that the Alberta government plans to offer to promote more oilsands growth.
Premier Danielle Smith said at the Oil Sands Expo in Fort McMurray in September that Alberta would unveil a revised royalty framework in November, structured to encourage companies to invest in new oil production.
The aim is to generate enough new output to fill the proposed one million barrel a day Pacific Link pipeline, which Ottawa designated last week as a project of national interest.
Under the current system, oilsands projects pay royalties of one to nine per cent of gross revenue until their upfront costs are recovered, and 25 to 40 per cent of net revenue after that.
The Corner property aside, Cenovus forecasts about $85 million a year in corporate and commercial synergies post purchase, most of which will come in the first year after closing. Layoffs may result.
The purchase will temporarily push Cenovus's debt above its own $4-billion target.
Net debt was about $3 billion at the end of the third quarter, and the company expects it to reach roughly $5 billion by year-end, assuming the maximum cash payout.
Athabasca chief executive Rob Broen said the deal lets shareholders "realize substantial value today" while keeping a stake in future gains through Cenovus stock.
The deal is not purely an oilsands play. It also gives Cenovus full ownership of Duvernay Energy Corp., an oil-weighted producer in Alberta's Duvernay shale region which produces 45,000 barrels of oil equivalent.
Both boards have unanimously approved the transaction, which still needs approval from Athabasca shareholders and regulators. Cenovus expects the deal to close in December.
Analysts point out Cenovus is paying a steep price to acquire Athabasca. To Randy Ollenberger at BMO Capital Markets, however, the price looks more modest if Cenovus delivers on its growth plans.
The deal is Cenovus' second oilsands purchase in less than a year. Last November, the company closed its $8.6-billion purchase of MEG Energy Corp. after a bidding war with Strathcona Resources Ltd.
On that deal, the company's net debt climbed to $8.3-billion. And after a year of paying down the MEG purchase, Cenovus' debt levels prior to the Athabasca deal were below its target of $4-billion.
The degree to which Cenovus is using debt financing to acquire Athabasca revives memories of another transformative oilsands purchase by the company.
In March 2017, it agreed to pay $17.7 billion for ConocoPhillips' 50 per cent stake in the Foster Creek and Christina Lake projects, along with Deep Basin natural gas assets.
The acquisition doubled production and reserves, but investors balked at the price and the debt.
The shares lost roughly half their value over the following months, and then-chief executive Brian Ferguson announced his retirement that June.
Suncor, meanwhile, on Monday said it is selling its 48 per cent stake in Terra Nova, 40 per cent stake in White Rose and 38.6 per cent stake in West White Rose. Each asset is located approximately 350 kilometres southeast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean.
The deal includes a contingent payment of up to $350 million tied to future oil prices, which could bring the total to $1.55 billion.
"They are selling the assets because they're non-core, and they've said for a while that they would sell them," Ollenberger said. "Investors should like the sale. The proceeds are being returned to shareholders through the buyback."
Suncor said it will raise share repurchases to $750 million a month from $500 million starting in October, an annualized pace of $9 billion.
The company is not leaving the East Coast entirely, as it will keep its interests in the Hebron and Hibernia offshore projects both of which are located close to the assets the company is divesting.
For Ithaca, the deal is its first acquisition outside the United Kingdom. It intends to take over as operator of Terra Nova, while the White Rose interests are non-operated, leaving it as a partner to Cenovus, which operates that project.
The sale ends Suncor's role as operator of a project that has tested its patience.
Terra Nova was shut down by the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board in December 2019 over safety equipment deficiencies and did not pump oil again for nearly four years, after a life-extension refit in Spain ran well behind schedule.
The transaction is expected to close in early 2027.
• Email: jarose@postmedia.com
