EDMONTON, Alberta, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Oil company PetroChina plans to acquire a 60 percent stake in Canada's Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., which holds the largest lease in Alberta's oil sands.
PetroChina in a $1.7 billion deal will take a 60 percent stake in one of the largest oil sand reserves in Canada. Athabasca says it holds upwards of 1.3 million acres of oil sand leases in northern Alberta.
"Oil sands projects are very capital-intensive long-term investments and difficult to fully finance in the traditional equity market," Athabasca Chairman Bill Gallacher said in a statement.
Oil sands have developed as an alternative to conventional reserves, and Athabasca says the development is positive even with modest oil prices, Canada's Globe and Mail reports.
China has moved aggressively on oil sand developments, with its China National Petroleum Corp. making a $449 million bid for Verenex Energy in February. Sinopec in 2008 moved on a similar deal with the Calgary-based Tanganyika Oil.
Athabasca, for its part, submitted applications in 2008 for two pilot oil sand projects using steam-assisted gravity drainage. That technology uses high-pressure steam injections to push oil sands to the surface.
