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ENERGY: France’s Total to acquire Synenco Energy Inc for $480 million
        (AlbertaIndex, April 30, Wednesday) --- France’s Total said it has agreed to acquire TSX-listed Synenco Energy Inc for a total of $480 million or about $9 a share. Describing it as a friendly offer, Total said the deal has been unanimously approved by the Synenco Energy board, which will recommend the offer to its shareholders.
The offer circular will be published in the coming days, and is expected to be open for acceptance from that date for a period of about 35 to 45 days, subject to the date of receipt of the regulatory approval required from the Canadian authorities.

Synenco’s main asset is a 60% stake in the Northern Lights Project while China’s Sinopec owns the remaining 40% stake through its subsidiary SinoCanada Petroleum Corporation.

Synenco is the operator of this project in the Athabasca region in Alberta located about 100 km northeast of Fort Mc Murray.

Total said the Northern Lights Project as claimed by Synenco holds about 1.08 billion barrels of bitumen that “should be recovered using mining technologies.”

An application for the mining development was submitted to the Alberta authorities in mid-2006 and is being reviewed.

This asset will strengthen Total’s portfolio in the Athabasca region comprising principally the Joslyn project that will also be developed by mining techniques and is situated approximately 50 km from the Northern Lights Project.

Total said this acquisition is in line with its strategy of expanding its heavy oil operations in the Athabasca region, an industry segment with significant long term development potential.


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