China deal boosts speculation in oil sands juniors

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) – Shares in a handful of small companies active in Canada’s oil sands have been whipped up in frenzy speculative trading for more than a week based on little more than hope that foreign buyers may be interested in them.

Shares of Opti Canada Inc (OPC.TO), UTS Energy Corp (UTS.TO), Ivanhoe Energy Inc (IE.TO), and other small companies with oil sands projects or plans have made big gains in heavy volume over the week, a development that has puzzled analysts and perhaps the companies themselves.

The oil sands of northern Alberta, with more than 170 million barrels of oil, are the world’s biggest oil reserve outside of Saudi Arabia.

Reuters