BP is planing a return to the booming but environmentally controversial Canadian tar sands business with the creation of two joint ventures with Husky Energy worth an estimated $10 billion (£4.9 billion).
Eight years after disposing of its assets in the region, BP said that it had bought a 50 per cent share in Husky’s Sunrise tar sands project near Fort McMurray, Alberta, and at the same time had sold Husky a 50 per cent share in its Toledo refinery in Ohio.
The announcement represents a clear break with the past for Tony Hayward, BP’s new chief executive, whose predecessor Lord Browne of Madingley was an outspoken critic of costly oil sands developments. He sold off BP’s interests in Alberta in 1999, opting instead to focus on higher-risk but higher-return investments in countries such as Russia.
Read the article here: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article3007256.ece
