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CALGARY – Suncor Energy Inc. downplayed Monday the possibility the company would sweeten its hostile takeover offer for Canadian Oil Sands Ltd., saying a new offer today would be lower.

“If we were to make this offer today, it wouldn’t be at this level,” Suncor president and CEO Steve Williams said as the two sides in the bitter dispute upped the rhetoric with days to go before bid is set to expire on Friday.

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Williams noted the price of crude oil has dropped to about US$36 per barrel from about US$50 when the original offer was made in early October, while performance at COS’s sole asset Syncrude Canada Ltd. has been hurt by “operational problems.”

Suncor has offered 0.25 of its own shares in exchange for each COS share, worth about $4.3 billion. Williams said the company would consider walking away from deal without shareholder support.

On Monday, in a news release entitled “declaration of independence,” COS chairman Donald Lowry said the company had considered selling itself in whole or in part, but decided “those alternatives deliver substantially lower risk-adjusted value than the existing assets.”