Athabasca Oil Expects Timely Payment From Chinese Company

Canadian oil and gas company Athabasca Oil Corp. said Wednesday that it has yet to receive a $1.23 billion payment from state-run China National Petroleum Corp. for its remaining stake in an oil-sands project, but that the two companies have agreed to an undisclosed timeline for closing the deal.

The Calgary-based company exercised an option in April to sell its 40% stake in an oil-sands project called Dover to a unit of CNPC. Nearly four months later it has yet to receive the funds, which has weighed on Athabasca's stock price and raised concern among investors about the Chinese commitment to the deal.

Athabasca chief executive Sveinung Svarte didn't provide details of when it expects to be paid or why the deal has taken so long to close but he said the two companies are working to complete the transaction "in a reasonable time frame."

Athabasca also disclosed Wednesday that it has reached a separate $49 million settlement with CNPC's local affiliate to conclude a dispute over costs associated with the abandonment of older wells at Dover and one other oil-sands development site. That prompted the company to post a loss of $56.8 million Canadian dollars ($51.8 million), or 14 Canadian cents a share, for the quarter ended in June, compared with a loss of C$29.9 million, or seven cents a share, for the same period last year.

The former head of CNPC Canadian oil-sands unit Brion Energy Corp., Li Zhiming, was met by corruption investigators upon arrival at Beijing's airport in June, according to a person familiar with the matter. He couldn't be reached for comment.

CNPC's expected payment to Athabasca would give Brion 100% of the Dover oil-sands project, the last part of a deal worked out in 2010 that initially gave the Chinese 60% of the planned 250,000-barrel-a-day operation.

In early 2012, CNPC bought the remaining 40% stake in the nearby MacKay River oil-sands project from Athabasca, giving Brion full ownership. It had taken majority control of MacKay River, along with the nearby Dover project, in 2010.
（online.wsj.com Edited by Topco)