11:45 AM EST - Shell Canada : is in the news. Royal Dutch Shell has declared success in its $8.7-billion bid to take Shell Canada (TSX:SHC) private after acquiring nearly 99 per cent of the subsidiary's shares. Royal Dutch Shell, which already held a 78 per cent stake in the Canadian firm, offered $45 cash per share for the rest of the stock. It now can scoop up the rest through mandatory acquisition rules since more than 90 per cent of the stock was acquired. An earlier offer of $40 per share had failed to win over Shell Canada's minority shareholders. Shell Canada, which left the conventional oil business in Canada years ago, has been one of the pioneers in Canada's offshore energy exploration and helped develop the Sable Island natural gas project off the coast of Nova Scotia. But its future lies in the Northern Alberta oilsands, where the Calgary-based company operates and owns 60 per cent of the Athabasca oilsands development. That project began operations in 2003 and is designed to produce 155,000 barrels of tar-like bitumen a day. Shell Canada
shares T.SHC are trading unchanged at $44.95.
