Time To Buy Before The Next Rally Thru 2.54
Opti stock up 12 percent as Long Lake restarts
13:46 EDT Thursday, October 15, 2009
* Long Lake oil sands project restarts
* Shares rise as much as 12 percent
CALGARY, Alberta, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Shares of Opti Canada Inc rose as much as 12 percent on Thursday as its partner in the Long Lake oil sands project restarted production after shutting the facility for maintenance in mid-September.
Opti shares were up 16 Canadian cents, or 7.1 percent, at C$2.43 in afternoon dealings on the Toronto Stock Exchange after touching C$2.54 earlier in the day. Volume was 5.06 million shares, nearly half again the usual average over the past three months.
Opti owns a 35 percent stake in the Long Lake oil sands project in northern Alberta. Partner Nexen Inc said on Thursday that it had completed a month-long turnaround at facility and was ramping bitumen production up to the 12,000 to 15,000 barrel a day level that it had produced before the shutdown began.
Long Lake is a thermal oil sands project, which pumps steam into the ground to liquefy deposits of tar-like bitumen so it can be pumped to the surface and shipped to the project's upgrader for conversion into refinery-ready synthetic crude.
The project has the capacity to produce as much as 60,000 barrels of synthetic crude per day, but because thermal projects take months or more to reach full output, Long Lake isn't expected to reach peak rates for up to two years.
Opti has been a favored target for takeover rumors in recent months, with the shares shooting up a third. The company said it couldn't point to any reason for the gain, though some analysts credited high frequency trading methods and speculation that Chinese interests could be readying a takeover bid.
Opti shares also often move in tandem with oil prices, which rose on Thursday to the highest this year, recently trading above $77 a barrel.
"If you're looking for the most levered oil play out there, this is it," said William Lacey, an analyst at FirstEnergy Capital.
($1=$1.03 Canadian) (Reporting by Scott Haggett; editing by Peter Galloway)
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