Letter from Canada: Oil sands return to domestic ownership

Continuing exodus of foreign companies means assets are coming back to Canadian-headquartered firms

Oil sands developer Suncor Energy’s agreement to acquire TotalEnergies’ Canadian assets in a C$5.5bn ($4.1bn) all-cash deal in late April was yet another step in the accidental return of the oil sands industry to domestic ownership since the second half of the last decade. The reasons for IOCs fleeing the world’s fourth-largest oil reserves have been primarily economic and environmental to date, with the former being a relatively important factor for US-based firms and the latter for Europe-headquartered ones. However, the primary reason for the next wave is likely to be geopolitical, with Chinese state oil companies now looking for the door. Western exodus Canada’s oil sands industry saw th