Equinor offloads interest in Canadian oil sands producer Athabasca

Norway’s Equinor has exited from the Canadian oil sands operations by divesting its 18.8% stake in carbon-intensive oil sands producer Athabasca Oil.

Equinor, formerly known as Statoil, has divested 100 million shares in Athabasca Oil for 18 cents per share, or C$18m ($14.2m).

An Equinor spokesman was quoted by Reuters as saying: “This was just a financial holding that was part of the deal when we exited. We have no other interests onshore Canada now.”

As per the regulatory filings, Athabasca produced 20,200 barrels per day of oil sands crude in the third-quarter of 2020. This accounts for about two-thirds of the company’s total output.

In 2017, Statoil sold its entire oil sands operations in the Canadian province of Alberta to Athabasca.

The divested assets include the Leismer demonstration plant and the Corner project, along with a number of midstream contracts associated with Leismer’s production.

In return, Statoil received $431m in cash and 100 million common shares in Athabasca.

In 2019, Equinor divested its onshore business in the Eagle Ford, Texas, the US, to Spanish energy company Repsol for $325m.

The divestment covers all of its interests in the Eagle Ford joint venture (JV) with Repsol, which covers 69,000 net acres.

With the completion of the acquisition, Repsol owns a 100% working interest in the asset and becomes the operator.

The deal is a part of Repsol’s plan to improve its producing assets portfolio management and leverage operating synergies.