The following article by D. Healing appears in today's Calgary Herald:

Athabasca Oil Sands Corp. confirmed it is the unnamed buyer in the sale announced Monday of a 10,000-hectare oilsands lease south of Fort McMurray.

Alberta Oilsands Inc. said in a news release it has signed a deal to sell for $27 million the 50 per cent interest it has in a lease called Halfway Creek, which is in the Hangingstone area near lands previously held by Excelsior Energy Ltd.

Excelsior was purchased last year by Athabasca Oil Sands for $144 million.

Alberta Oilsands' partner on the property, Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd. of Calgary, refused comment when asked to confirm the deal to sell the Halfway Creek leases.

Nor would Dick Gusella, chairman and chief executive, say whether Connacher had sold its half interest, although sources close to the deal confirmed it has.

Athabasca shares climbed 35 cents to $10.96 on Monday while Connacher fell 3.5 cents to 45 cents and Alberta Oilsands rose two cents to 23.5 cents.

Athabasca is awaiting provincial approval for its 150,000 barrel per day MacKay River thermal oilsands joint venture with PetroChina. Athabasca sold 60 per cent of its Dover and MacKay River projects to PetroChina for $1.9 billion in 2010.

"Proceeds from this sale unlocks material value from oilsands assets that were a lower priority for development for AOS," said executive chairman Shabir Premji in the Alberta Oilsands news release Monday.

He was not immediately available for further comment.

The release says the transaction is expected to close before the end of September.

The companies announced in June they had hired RBC Rundle to help sell the land, with both saying it was a noncore asset whose sale will provide funds to build other projects.

"This lot is quite a ways down the road in determining whether there's a project," said Gusella at the time.

"It's a pretty good time to sell, with oil prices pretty buoyant and quite a few players still interested in getting a foothold in the business or people in the immediate region may have an interest."

Connacher's oilsands strategy includes asset rationalization and accelerating the development of its Great Divide assets through a joint venture.

Alberta Oilsands has applied to build a 4,500 bpd solventassisted low pressure steam-assisted gravity drainage project on its Clearwater leases. Two more phases would eventually take combined output to 25,000 bpd.

Premji said in June the company would use the proceeds from the sale to help fund the first phase, estimated to cost $150 million.

Premji added the Excelsior deal equates to about 50 cents per barrel of contingent resource, which would translate to a value of about $77 million for Halfway Creek.

DHEALING@CALGARHERALD.COM

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Athabasca+expands+oilsands+presence/5463179/story.html#ixzz1Z9vRjS1g