Oil producer Sunshine Oilsands seeks C$300m to fund projects
Sunshine Oilsands looks to banks for more loans to finance the building of facilities in Canada
Canada's Sunshine Oilsands, 29 per cent owned by Chinese state-backed firms, plans to raise between C$300 million (HK$2.33 billion) and C$350 million by seeking more bank loans to fund the development of its second oil sands production project in northern Alberta.
The company earlier this month completed a C$200 million syndicated loan from international banks to finance the construction of facilities to exploit oil sands at its West Ells project and early-stage development of its Thickwood and Legend Lake projects.
West Ells is located 100 kilometres northwest of Fort McMurray in northern Alberta province in western Canada.
"We expect to raise the additional term debt as early as the first quarter of next year, which should be sufficient to fund completion of our Thickwood project," Sunshine's vice-president of corporate operations, David Sealock, told the South China Morning Post.
Sealock said the company, which is listed in Hong Kong, aimed to also list in Toronto by next month without raising funds.
West Ells, which started construction in June, is expected to start production in the middle of next year with an initial output capacity of 10,000 barrels a day, expandable to 100,000 barrels.