India's state oil companies intend to press ahead with plans to purchase stakes in Canada's oil sands and believe they will not run afoul of tougher Canadian rules on foreign ownership of the sector. A consortium of Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Oil India Ltd and refiner Indian Oil Corp is among three bidders shortlisted to buy stakes in Canadian oil sands owned by ConocoPhillips. The assets could be worth up to $5 billion."We are very much in race for Conoco's assets," an official at one of the Indian consortium partners told Reuters, declining to be identified. The consortium submitted its bid in July."Our deal will not be affected as our understanding of the new rule is that JV stake sale or non-controlling stake sale are welcomed by Canada. However complete takeover will be approved as an exception," he added.On Friday, Canada approved a $15.1 billion bid by China's CNOOC for Nexen and a $5.3 billion takeover of Progress Energy by Malaysia's Petronas, but shut the door on similar deals in the future.
ConocoPhillips explores for, produces, transports and markets crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids, liquefied natural gas and bitumen on a worldwide basis. Shares of COP remained unchanged at $57.88. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $50.62 and as high as $78.29. On average, 6152100 shares of COP exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 0.
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