CALGARY -- As interest in acquiring oil-sands assets accelerates, cash-strapped outfits have found a way to maintain their footing in the sector while still selling undeveloped properties.

The strategy is also benefiting Enbridge Inc. and service companies as the tar-like prize buried in Alberta's bitumen-rich zones continues to be divvied up.

UTS Energy Corp. this week sold a stretch of land it controlled but on which it lacked information as to its potential to Imperial Oil Ltd. and Exxon Mobil Corp. for $250-million. That cash will help the company stay afloat as it waits on Suncor Energy Inc. to decide the timing on UTS's main asset: the undeveloped, but ready-to-go, Fort Hills mining operation.

Experts predict OPTI Canada Inc., which said Tuesday it is exploring so-called strategic alternatives, will follow UTS's example and sell its undeveloped properties to survive long enough to reap the rewards bound up in the Long Lake oil-sands project, in which it holds a 35% stake.

"It is a great strategy," said Michal Moore, a senior fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment, and Economy at the University of Calgary. "It is a time-honoured technique."

Andrew Potter, an analyst at UBS Securities Inc., thinks OPTI's preferred outcome is an asset sale, rather than an auction for the entire company.

"This would solve [OPTI's] future financing problems [like] how to fund future phases, as well as alleviate short-term issues ... allowing [OPTI] to survive in a higher oil price environment," he said in a research note.

Chris Slubicki, OPTI's chief executive, noted his company is moving now in part because the "transaction market" is once again heating up. UTS fits the pattern, he said.

"That would be one example, one of many in the last couple of months," the engineer and former investment banker said, noting he does not have a preferred outcome, but will instead pursue the best option for shareholders. Nexen Inc. controls the rest of the Long Lake project, and is also partnered with OPTI on its Cottonwood and Leismer leases.

Korea National Oil Corp. at the end of October agreed to buy Harvest Energy Trust for $1.8-billion, plus taking on its $2.3-billion in debt; PetroChina International Investment Co. in September struck a deal to pay $1.9-billion, plus other financing arrangements, for a 60% stake in two projects under Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.'s control.

Richard Bird, Enbridge's chief financial officer, said his pipeline company will do better should players like Exxon and wealthy state-owned oil companies wrestle control over even more of the oil sands away from tiny independents struggling under financial pressure and volatile crude prices.

"A bigger and better financed company has the ability to ride out those periods," he said in an interview. "[That] provides us with more opportunities for expansion of our existing systems, or construction of laterals to connect new projects into our systems, and construction of whole new pipelines."

Pat Daniel, Enbridge's chief executive officer, noted the rejuvenated buzz in the oil sands contributed to his company's ability to double its third-quarter earnings and jack up its profit forecast.

"We're encouraged by increasing signs of renewed activity in the oil sands as commodity prices recover," he said. "We see significant growth opportunities in the oil sands both in regional pipeline infrastructure and in extending access to new markets."

Enbridge made $303.8-million, or 83¢ per share, in the third quarter, up from $148.4-million (41¢) a year earlier.

ctait@nationalpost.com