As of 5:00 p.m. (Calgary time) on 25 June 2007, all of the conditions to the Offer by Statoil Canada Ltd to acquire all of the securities of North American Oil Sands Corp. (NAOSC) were satisfied, with approximately 98 % of the NAOSC shares having been validly deposited to the Offer. Statoil Canada Ltd has taken up all such shares and will pay for such shares on or before 28 June 2007. Statoil Canada Ltd has also exercised its statutory rights of compulsory acquisition under the Business Corporations Act (Alberta) to acquire the remaining NAOSC securities that were not deposited to the Offer. The total transaction value is CAD 2.2 billion. In connection with the approval under the Investment Canada Act, Statoil Canada Ltd made commitments to the Minister of Industry, which highlight the significant net benefit to Canada that will result from the acquisition. These include Statoil Canada Ltd’s commitment to making significant investments to develop NAOSC’s oil sands operations and proposed bitumen upgrader and also utilizing its expertise in managing complex, integrated projects and applying technology solutions to NAOSC’s operations, all of which will increase the certainty of the successful development of NAOSC’s oil sands operations. Through the acquisition, Statoil gains access to 275,200 acres of oil sands leases located in the Athabasca region of Alberta, NE of Edmonton. First production is planned for late 2009/early 2010 from the Leismer demonstration project. It will have a capacity of 10,000 barrels of produced bitumen per day. The portfolio is expected to yield more than 200,000bpd at the end of next decade.
