Canada looks to Beijing for new oil sands investment

As IOCs flee, Ottawa hopes to lure Asian petrodollars back

International oil companies are retreating from Canada's oil sands.  In the past year alone, Shell, Statoil, Total and ConocoPhillips have sold off tens of billions of dollars in major projects to Canadian operators. Just four domestic companies now control more than 70% of the country's oil sands output. That might sound like good news to the oil nationalists, but it raises the threat that the oil sands won't get the investment needed to continue to grow. In response, natural resources minister Jim Carr took a trip through China last week to promote investment in the oil sands, among other projects, to the country's major energy companies. "We would welcome investment from any nation that's