Cenovus to sell Pelican Lake assets

Cenovus Energy has agreed to sell its Pelican Lake heavy oil assets to Canadian Natural Resources for CAD 975 million (USD 786 million), the companies announced on Tuesday.

The deal would help Cenovus fund a USD 13.3-billion asset acquisition from ConocoPhillips that was agreed in March, company officials said.

“This represents a significant first step in our strategy to optimise our asset portfolio and deleverage our balance sheet as planned following the acquisition of the ConocoPhillips assets,” said Cenovus president and CEO Brian Ferguson. “The divestiture processes for the remainder of our legacy conventional assets are proceeding as expected, with strong interest from potential buyers.”

Cenovus is in the process of auctioning other non-core assets, including those in Suffield, Palliser and Saskatchewan, the company statement added.

The deal, which would increase Canadian Natural Resources’ output by about 19,600 boepd, is expected to close by September 30, the latter company said in a separate release.