CALGARY(Reuters) - All may not be lost for Canadian oil companies in their quest to raise cash by selling assets without losing control over them.It appeared Ottawa closed that door last year by deciding to remove the tax advantages income trusts have enjoyed.

But look south: the master limited partnership, or MLP, market in the United States may offer some key benefits the exploration and production sector lost with income trusts, investment and energy industry sources said.

MLPs could allow many Canadian firms to sell stakes in low-maintenance, mature properties to investors, spelling pay days for Bay Street as asset values rise, boosting shares of firms setting up partnerships, and presenting new advisory work for investment bankers.

Companies and investors are starting to take notice.

Last week, shares in EnCana, Canada's biggest oil company, zoomed up five percent when investors speculated it was considering folding assets into one.

"There's quite a movement afoot for MLPs to be created, much like the trust sector was here 10 years ago," said David Holm, vice-president of strategy and finance at Provident Energy Trust.

"We saw this coming and created the vehicle."

Provident raised $111 million last year by floating Breitburn Energy Partners LP, an MLP that operates assets in California, Wyoming and Texas. Provident owns about three-quarters of it.

As with trusts, investors buy publicly traded MLP units and get cash payouts to achieve a yield. General partners manage the assets.

Another trust, Enerplus Resources Fund, said this month it is looking for US MLP opportunities.

MLPs involving operations like pipelines and natural gas processing are big, well-known US businesses, but there are just seven exploration and production partnerships with a total market value of $6.5 billion.

Compare that to $70 billion worth of energy trusts, even after Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty knocked the stuffing out of unit prices when he announced changes to the way trusts are taxed last Halloween, said Brian Prokop, vice-president of institutional sales at CanaccordAdams.