Exodus from Canada’s oil sands continues

Companies are still fleeing the carbon-heavy assets, despite the industry committing to net-zero emissions by 2050 through the Pathways Alliance

TotalEnergies has unveiled plans to spin off its Canadian oil sands assets, and Vancouver-based miner Teck Resources has sold its share of Alberta’s Fort Hills mine to Suncor Energy, the asset’s operator and largest stakeholder, marking two high-profile exits from Canada’s oil sands since the end of September. “This is part of a longer-term trend by upstream oil and gas companies to divest non-core assets and focus more on core ones where they are more heavily positioned and/or believe they have competitive or strategic advantage,” Kevin Birn, vice-president at information provider S&P Global Commodity Insights, tells Petroleum Economist. “Companies such as TotalEnergies have a global po