TORONTO — Suncor Energy will acquire Petro-Canada for $15.5 billion, uniting two of Canada’s biggest oil companies as the nation’s energy industry retrenches.
If the deal announced Monday is approved, it would create the largest oil company in Canada with a market capitalization of about $38 billion.
That’s much smaller than global heavyweights such as Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, which boast market capitalizations of $326.6 billion and $55.97 billion respectively, but the company would have some of the same benefits of scale.
The companies said they could save $244 million in operating costs and $812 million in capital efficiencies each year.
Suncor owns Colorado’s two oil refineries in Commerce City. The two refineries together have a combined capacity of more than 90,000 barrels a day, supplying about a third of Colorado’s gasoline and diesel-fuel demand.
Petro-Canada entered Colorado in 2004, when it bought Denver-based Prima Energy for about $534 million. It has oil and gas exploration and production operations on the Western Slope.
The deal comes during a period that could be the bottom for the oil industry, particularly the oil-sands industry in Canada.
