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“Athabasca had hoped to negotiate the terms of the JV with PetroChina to allow it to keep MacKay while selling Dover. We suspect those talks were unsuccessful and Athabasca felt compelled to exercise its put to keep the $1.32-billion Dover option alive,” he said in a note to clients. “Given Athabasca’s large capital program at its non-JV assets we suspect the Dover put will also be exercised around year-end 2012 when regulatory approval is achieved.”

The move also opens the door for Athabasca to consider further joint ventures at its Dover West, Birch and Hangingstone projects.

“A well-priced JV at the other oil sands assets could prompt a re-rating of the stock,” he said.

Mr. Friess rates Athabasca neutral while raising the price target slightly to $13.50 from $13.

On the other hand Chris Feltin, analyst with Macquarie Capital Markets Canada, expects Athabasca to use the cash to keep its projects in-house.

“Athabasca’s exercise of its MacKay option is consistent with our thesis that the company would monetize some resource to fund other parts of its portfolio. The disposition greatly improves the company’s financial flexibility in 2012,” he said in a note. “With no shortage of projects to develop, we expect the use of proceeds would be directed to Deep Basin drilling and further SAGD (steam-assisted gravity drilling) development.”

The company will be spending $400-million in the Deep Basin in 2012, where it has 1.7 million acres of undeveloped land, he said.

With more than 40 horizontal wells to drill in 2012, there are plenty of catalysts for Athabasca shares in 2012, Mr. Feltin said.

He maintains an outperform rating and a $18 price target.