The Financial Post reports in its Thursday edition Brookfield Asset Management is eyeing Canada's oil group after participating in a $2.1-billion transaction in Australia last month. The Post's Barbara Shecter quotes chief executive officer Bruce Flatt as saying Wednesday: "Oil and gas, clearly, especially oil in Alberta, is a sector which is under more stress than it has been in a long time. We don't have a lot of oil exposure today. Most of the stuff we have in Alberta is natural gas related. Our view today is that it's a good time to be starting into the oil business." When asked how much Brookfield might spend, Mr. Flatt told the Post: "Our deal in Australia was a US$2 billion transaction. It could be larger than that. We generally don't do too many small transactions." In a letter to shareholders, Mr. Flatt referred to the Australian deal, done with Apache and Macquarie, as Brookfield's "first significant oil investment since the change in oil valuations." After the meeting he said "there could be others," and added that Brookfield could be interested in oil production or a mid-stream business, which usually includes transportation and storage. Mr. Flatt said he also expects to be more active in Europe.