Really NO big surprise here....Well, what can i say? Both myself & autofocus11 saw this coming miles away just a few weeks ago when Teck revealed their intent. There was really only one outcome to Teck's situation & predicament and it was Suncor. There absolutely was NO OTHER interested buyer besides them. And Suncor for its defense, really has no other alternative but to double down on these problematic asstes to survive. With regards to their business model, they can't really divest or leverage down and pivot into something else like others.
Suncor is at its core a 100% "oil sands platy", it was intently created for that purpose and nothing else. Always has been so & always will be so. Some might say that Cenovus could have also been a pontential buyer, but Cenovus is already too much heavily indebted and has it's own troubles to deal with. So those factors more or less counted them out. It's also possible that Suncor might have outbid them on this particular asset, but the odds that Cenovus even attempted are quite low. Suncor was really the ONLY option Teck had and the sole possible buyer in the whole world!
The only thing left to iron out is who will pick up Total's remain interest in that project? Could it be Cenovos? I don't see anyone else being able OR willing to do it, for obvious reasons. We will see soon i guess. Now we all know where Suncor stands with the ESG issue and what they really think about it. Whether this was a good move or not for Suncor & its s/h remains to be seen, as it will be entirely based on where the country goes politically and what (and who!) future policies will be drawn up in the next 10 years.
GLTA