Dumping oil sands: Teck doesn't want Fort Hills stake.
Teck looks to unload Fort Hills
Teck Cominco is seeking for buyers for its 20% stake in the Fort Hills oil sands project, project partner UTS Energy said in a corporate presentation today.
As part of a slide show urging shareholders to reject a hostile takeover attempt by French oil giant Total, UTS said that Teck had told UTS that it had begun the process of selling its stake in the project, located in northern Alberta.
“Teck advised UTS of Teck's process to sell their working interest in the Fort Hills Partnership,” UTS said, according to a Reuters report.
Teck, which has cut costs and begun selling assets to pay off a $5.8 billion bridge loan taken on to pay for last year's acquisition of the Fording coal trust, has been believed to be trying to sell its Fort Hills stake, but it has not confirmed it.
Teck spokeswoman Sarah Goodman would not confirm whether Teck was trying to sell the stake and would not address the UTS statement.
“We're keeping our options open with respect to asset sales,” she said.
Teck and UTS each own 20% of Fort Hills, while Petro-Canada owns 60% of the C$21 billion ($17 billion) project.
Teck head Don Lindsay had hoped to form a multibillion-dollar energy division alongside Teck's core copper, coal, and zinc mining operations, but the $13 billion acquisition of Fording has forced Teck to consider selling core assets to pay down the debt.