(Recasts with comments from CEO about Suncor takeover bid, adds
background )
By Mike De Souza
CALGARY, Alberta, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Canadian Oil Sands Ltd
COS.TO , the biggest shareholder in the Syncrude project, has
not received a rival offer to a hostile takeover bid by Suncor
Energy SU.TO , but it is "getting interest" as it explores
alternatives, Chief Executive Ryan Kubic said on Thursday.
In an interview after the company reported a quarterly loss,
Kubic said he had met in recent days with many of the company's
top shareholders who told him that the bid from Suncor, Canada's
largest oil and gas producer, is undervalued and embarrassing.
"They're showing strong support for ... our recommendation
that shareholders should reject the Suncor offer," he said.
He said the company is exploring several alternatives to the
Suncor bid, including staying independent, selling portions of
the business, or selling the whole business to another buyer.
"We're just in the early days of that process but we are
getting interest," Kubic said.
Canadian Oil Sands on Thursday reported a loss of C$174
million ($132.22 million), or 36 Canadian cents per share.
That was a much wider loss than the average analyst
expectation of a loss of 22 Canadian cents per share, according
to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
COS realized a synthetic crude oil selling price of C$60.20
per barrel compared with C$102.58 per barrel in the same 2014
quarter.
Cash flow from operations, a key indicator of the company's
ability to pay for new projects and drilling, fell to C$82
million, compared with C$302 million in the same quarter of
2014, largely reflecting the lower synthetic crude price.
Operating expenses per barrel dropped to C$40.49 for the
quarter, compared with C$47.73 in the third quarter of 2014.
A fire at the Syncrude project in late August sharply cut
production throughout September. Overall, the project produced
21.6 million barrels of synthetic crude oil in the third
quarter, compared with 22.5 million barrels in the year-earlier
quarter.
The Syncrude venture - Canada's largest oil sands project -
is jointly owned by Canadian Oil Sands, Suncor, Imperial Oil
IMO.TO , Mocal Energy, Murphy Oil (N:MUR) MUR.N , CNOOC Ltd 0883.HK
subsidiary Nexen and Sinopec 0386.HK .
($1 = 1.3160 Canadian dollars)