PetroChina Buys Oil Sand Project

PetroChina Co has agreed to buy out its partner's stake in a newly approved project for C$680 million ($674 million, 515 million euros).

Calgary-based Athabasca Oil Sands Corp said it exercised an option to sell its 40-percent interest in the MacKay River oil sands project in northern Alberta to PetroChina so it could free up money to concentrate on some of its other oil sands and light crude projects.

After the project won regulatory approvals in December, the partners had 30 days to decide whether to exercise put and call options on Athabasca's stake.