Topic: How To Invest

Pat: Any thoughts on Athabasca Oil Corporation?

Article Excerpt

Athabasca Oil Corp., $13.19, symbol ATH on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 399.5 million; Market cap: $5.3 billion; www.atha.com), aims to develop oil sands and conventional oil resources in northeastern Alberta’s Athabasca region. The company first sold shares to the public at $18 and began trading on Toronto in April 2010. At the time, it was called Athabasca Oil Sands. In 2009, state-owned PetroChina bought a 60% stake in two of the company’s projects, MacKay River and Dover, for $1.9 billion. In January 2012, it sold the remaining 40% of MacKay River to PetroChina for $680 million. Then, in May 2012, it changed its name to Athabasca Oil Corp. That’s because, in addition to its remaining stake in the Dover oil sands project, it discovered light oil under that formation in what it calls its Leduc deposit. The company holds cash of $753.2 million, or $1.89 a share. However, extracting oil from oil sands is hugely complicated and expensive. Oil sands petroleum needs more processing than…