Following the Federal Government's December 7, 2012
pronouncement on foreign investment policy as it pertains to SOEs
in the oil and gas industry (discussed in detail in our article
"Competition and Foreign Investment Regulation"), 2013
should see refocused investment in Canadian resource plays. In
relation to SOEs, we would expect to see few, if any, investments
take the form of complete acquisitions of control (and none in
relation to the oil sands), but on-going investments in the form of
joint ventures, minority positions and similar arrangements. Such
arrangements have become quite common in any event, with recent
examples including China Investment Corporation's acquisition
of a minority stake in Teck Resources and a 45% stake in oil sands
assets of Penn West, and CNOOC's acquisition of a 14% stake in
MEG Energy. Indeed, within less than one week of the issuance of
the revised policy on foreign investment by SOEs, Encana and
PetroChina announced the formation of a
