Cenovus has found a buyer for its Pelican Lake assets, reaching a $975-million deal with Canadian Natural Resources. Cenovus (CVE.TO) had been looking to offload Pelican Lake and its near-20,000 barrels per day of production, along with the remainder of its conventional assets, since its blockbuster $17.7-billion acquisition of ConocoPhillips’ oil sands assets in March.

The move will help the oil sands major clean up its balance sheet in the wake of the deal, which was widely panned as an overpayment. The company is targeting as much as $5-billion worth of divestitures to help pay for the deal -- with Suffield, Palliser and Weyburn still on the table. Combined, the conventional assets produce about 112,000 barrels per day of oil equivalent.

Cenovus will use the proceeds of the sale to help pay down the $3.6-billion bridge loan it took on as part of the Conoco deal, the first tranche of which matures in November 2018. In a press release, Chief Executive Officer Brian Ferguson said the company is seeing significant interest from potential buyers for the remainder of its conventional assets.

“This represents a significant first step in our strategy to optimize our asset portfolio and deleverage our balance sheet as planned following the acquisition of the ConocoPhillips assets,” Ferguson said in a press release. “The divestiture processes for the remainder of our legacy conventional assets are proceeding as expected, with strong interest from potential buyers.”

Whether the move will help soothe the frayed nerves of investors remains to be seen. Shares of Cenovus have plunged 43 per cent since the Conoco deal was announced. Ferguson announced his plans to retire at the end of October and vowed to stick around until the asset sale plan is complete. A replacement CEO has not yet been found.