PetroChina, the nation's top oil and gas producer, announced Thursday its acquisition of a 60 percent working interest in Canada-based oil sands company Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.'s (AOSC) MacKay River and Dover oil sands projects, china-cbn.com reports.

After obtaining approval from the Chinese and Canadian governments in respect to the acquisition of certain oil sands assets from the Canadian AOSC, PetroChina International Investment Company Limited and AOSC officially submitted the acquisition documents on February 10, 2010, and completion simultaneously took place in Calgary, Alberta.

PetroChina International Investment Company Limited, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of PetroChina, will jointly develop the oil sands projects at MacKay River and Dover with AOSC pursuant to the terms of the acquisition agreement.

PetroChina announced last September that it would invest US$1.73 billion to purchase 60 percent of AOSC shares, which is the nation's biggest investment in Canada's oil sand industry.

(CRIENGLISH.com February 12, 2010)