Shell selling Canadian assets

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CALGARY, Alberta, May 30 (UPI) -- Shell Canada has decided to sell its underperforming Orion thermal oil sands project.

The venture is in the Cold Lake region of northeastern Alberta and has failed to meet Shell's financial projections, the company said.

"The decision to divest this asset is part of our ongoing efforts to manage our overall heavy oil portfolio to focus on our core assets," Shell Canada spokesman Stephen Doolan said in via e-mail to the Calgary Herald.

"We have decided to focus our in situ growth aspirations on our Peace River oil sands assets where we have a significant resource base."

Shell Canada bought Orion in 2006 part of its $2.4 billion purchase of Calgary's BlackRock Ventures. Four years later, Shell Canada wrote off about $1 billion in oil sands assets, including a portion of its BlackRock Ventures investment.

While Phase 1 of Orion production commenced the following year, its growth over the five years has been stalled at half of its 10,000 barrels per day potential capacity, the company said.