PetroChina has walked away from a C$5.4 billion (HK$43 billion) stake acquisition in a natural gas project in Canada after it failed to reach agreement with Canadian energy firm Encana on the price and the details of the deal.
China's largest oil and gas producer withdrew from negotiations due to 'differences in valuation judgment and transaction process', said its Beijing-based spokesman. 'But this has not affected PetroChina's overseas development plan and business strategy in North America.'
In mid-February, PetroChina said it had agreed to pay C$5.4 billion for a 50 per cent stake in Encana's Cutbank Ridge unconventional gas development project in western Canada. It was subject to due diligence by PetroChina and government approval.
At the time, PetroChina said it expected the acquisition to provide a platform for entering the North American market.
Had the deal been completed, it would have been the firm's largest asset acquisition and would have provided a toehold in North America, a large energy consumption and production region where advanced drilling technology is deployed.
Analysts said the deal was expensive even though it would have helped China gain know-how on exploiting hard-to-reach unconventional gas and use it to develop domestic resources. They said the C$5.4 billion price tag would imply a C$5.40 per thousand cubic feet of proven reserves, compared with the US futures gas price of US$4.30.