Suncor’s unsolicited bid for the largest owner in the Syncrude oil-sands consortium has been closely watched by industry observers as a sign that Canada’s biggest oil and gas producer may think global crude prices are at or close to their bottom, after falling 50% over the past year. Oil’s slump has punished stock prices of most energy producers, including Canadian Oil Sands, whose shares fell to 15-year lows in the weeks before Suncor made its offer. “It’s no secret that Suncor’s timing is opportunistic. It’s designed to take advantage of Canadian Oil Sands’ shareholders during an unprecedented period of market uncertainty in the energy industry,” Don Lowry, chairman of Canadian Oil Sands, said on a conference call. Mr. Lowry accused Suncor of seeking to buy out Canadian Oil Sands at “fire-sale prices,” but he left the door open to a possible deal by saying the board would continue to […]