I'm expecting some announcements soon:
Husky Energy confirms talks with Chinese to "further their knowledge"
01:26 AM EST Jan 13
JAMES STEVENSON
CALGARY (CP) - Husky Energy Inc. said Wednesday it has held several discussions with Chinese officials to "help further their knowledge" of Canada's oilsands, but so far they have not discussed any potential investments in Husky.
Fresh rumours the Chinese government is interested in buying the Calgary-based oil and gas producer have been circulating for months, pushing the company's shares to all-time highs last November.
Bob Shepherd, Husky's general manager, said Wednesday that Chinese officials have been talking with the company.
"We have met with a couple of the delegations from China, and we expect discussions like that to continue," Shepherd said outside of a conference on Canada's growing oilsands business.
"They've been over a couple of times and Husky is happy to work with them to help further their knowledge."
"They're definitely keen to understand (the oilsands business) and I'm sure that's in advance of looking for investment opportunities," he said.
Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing and his family controls about 71 per cent of the company through personal holdings and its controlling stake in conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa.
Li announced Wednesday that he is selling all of his shares in CIBC. Although the timing and pricing of the stock sale hasn't been determined, the shares were worth about $1.2 billion on Wednesday.
Husky (TSX:HSE) held takeover talks with PetroChina back in 2002, but no deal came about.
Husky is also a partner with China National Offshore Oil Corp. in the Wenchang oilfield in the South China Sea and has other exploration activities in the area and in Indonesia.
The Calgary-based company has an array of costly plans for future oilsands developments.
It is already moving forward on its $500-million Tucker plant in north eastern Alberta near Cold Lake.
And it is also starting advance work on its much larger Sunrise plant that could cost upwards of $10 billion to fully develop.
Shepherd said Husky might be willing to take on partners to help with these future oilsands plans, but so far the company has not held any specific investment discussions with the Chinese or any other group.
China has been searching the world over for resources and has been eyeing Canada. State-owned mining company China Minmetals Corp. is in discussions to acquire Noranda Inc. (TSX:NRD), Canada's largest metals company.
Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corp., one of China's large state-owned energy companies, has recently said that it is interested in the vast reserves of the northern Alberta oilsands.
During a visit to Toronto last month, Sinopec vice-president Qiu Xianghua said the oilsands were "remarkable resources and we are currently investigating them."
Prime Minister Paul Martin is heading to China on a trade mission later this month with hopes to increase Canadian trade and investment with the rapidly growing Asian powerhouse.
And the Chinese have not limited their Canadian oilpatch discussions to Husky.
Calgary-based Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., also said Wednesday that they have had "very exploratory" discussions with the Chinese.
"They came around Alberta, and they went everywhere," said Real Doucet, Canadian Natural's senior vice president of oilsands. "They're interested in acquiring a stake in the business."
Canadian Natural (TSX:CNQ) expects to get the final, go-ahead approval from its board within the next couple months to officially start construction of its Horizon oilsands project, which will cost upwards of $10.7 billion in three phases over the next decade.
But the company said Wednesday that it is focused on building Horizon and doesn't need an equity partner to build the project.
Many other energy companies have plans to build smaller oilsands plants that use steam-assisted technology to get at reserves buried too deep underground for conventional open-pit mining.
And with oilsands production expected to dramatically increase over the next few years, Canadian pipeline companies are seriously considering building new, multi-billion dollar pipelines to take oilsands crude to the West Coast and onto ships bound for the Chinese and California markets.
Husky said such "downstream alternatives" would be necessary before granting approval to build its large Sunrise plant.
cbc.ca |
