Total has just entered into an agreement with Synenco Energy Inc., a company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, to make a cash offer to acquire all of the common shares of Synenco Energy Inc. at a price of 9 Can $ per share, or a total amount of close to 480 Can $ million (or about 300 million €). This friendly offer has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of Synenco Energy Inc., which will recommend the offer to its shareholders.

The offer circular will be published in the coming days, and is expected to be open for acceptance from that date for a period of about 35 to 45 days, subject to the date of receipt of the regulatory approval required from the Canadian authorities.

Synenco’s main asset is a 60% stake in the Northern Lights Project. Synenco is the operator of this project in the Athabasca region, in Alberta, at approximately 100 kilometres northeast of Fort Mc Murray. Sinopec, a Chinese company, is the holder of the remaining 40% stake through its subsidiary SinoCanada Petroleum Corporation.

The latest estimate of contingent resources of the Northern Lights Project published by Synenco is 1.08 billion barrels of bitumen; these resources should be recovered using mining technologies.

An application for the mining development of the Northern Lights Project was submitted to the Alberta authorities in mid-2006 and is being reviewed.

This asset will strengthen Total’s portfolio in the Athabasca region comprising principally the Joslyn project that will also be developed by mining techniques and is situated approximately 50 kilometres from the Northern Lights Project.

This acquisition is in line with Total’s strategy of expanding its heavy oil operations in the Athabasca region, an industry segment with significant long term development potential.

Tags: Synenco Energy Inc., Total