The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

Athabasca Oil Sands sells remaining 40% stake in MacKay River project to PetroChina for $666M:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203462304577138644252057100.html

The MacKay sale comes less than a week after Alberta regulators approved the planned 150,000-barrel-a-day project. It is scheduled to start out at 35,000 barrels a day in 2014.

The sale raises one big question: Does PetroChina have the capacity to develop the project by itself? UBS AG analyst Chad Friess said Athabasca's decision to opt out of MacKay may endanger the success of the project because PetroChina will have to hire outside expertise in an already-tight labor market in Western Canada's oil patch.

Also see #msg-47103702.