Canada's top oil producer looks for financial help as ballooning costs increase pressure.
Steven Williams, president and CEO of Suncor Energy, has announced the company is currently looking for Chinese investors to help develop their oil sands projects at home. As well as financing, Williams claimed Suncor was investigating “whether China can compete in the EPC [equipment, procurement and construction] world”.
Suncor, Canada's largest oil sands producer, has already formed a joint venture with Total SA to develop the largest expansion project yet in oil sands. The JV hope to build two mines and an upgrader capable of producing 200,000 barrels of synthetic crude oil per day.
While a Canadian oil sands project would have been irresistible to any one of the Chinese majors 12 months ago, Sinopec, CNPC and CNOOC have begun gradually slowing overseas unconventional energy acquisitions as they focus their efforts on developing existing projects.