OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 23 -- Thailand’s PTT Exploration & Production (PTTEP) plans to pay Norway’s Statoil $2.2 billion for a 40% interest in an Alberta oil sands project.
Statoil plans to keep 60% ownership of the Kai Kos Dehseh project, which it operates. Statoil Canada Ltd. will continue handling and marketing the production.
The transaction, subject to Canadian regulatory approvals, is expected to close in first-quarter 2011.
Statoil got involved with the Kai Kos Dehseh project through its 2007 acquisition of a private Calgary company North American Oil Sands Corp., which was developing 275,200 gross acres of oil sands leases in the Athabasca region.
Since then, Statoil has constructed steam assisted gravity drainage facilities and related infrastructure for the Leismer demonstration project, which is Kai Kos Dehseh’s first-phase development (OGJ, July 19, 2010, p. 39).
Statoil initiated steam injection at Leismer on Sept. 3 and expects to move into the production phase next year. Statoil’s schedule calls for Kai Kos Dehseh to produce 100,000 b/d of bitumen around 2016 and more than 200,000 b/d by 2020.
