By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Dec. 21 -- Ivanhoe Energy Inc., Vancouver, plans to acquire Ensyn Group Inc., Boston, and its subsidiary, Ensyn Petroleum International Ltd., which has a technology to upgrade heavy oil.
Ivanhoe, which already owns 15% of Ensyn, agreed to pay $85 million in cash and stock for the rest of the company. The transaction is expected to close early in the second quarter of 2005.
Ensyn Group will spin off its existing biomass processing business, Ensyn Renewables Inc., to its shareholders before the Ivanhoe-Ensyn transaction closes.
Ivanhoe said that it intends to apply Ensyn's technology to study development of a heavy oil field in Iraq, but the company gave no details on which field. The Ensyn acquisition will enable Ivanhoe to apply the upgrading technology in other countries with heavy oil deposits, including Venezuela, Canada, and the US, the company said.
