LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) today announced the signing
of a definitive agreement with Enerplus Resources Fund to purchase a 15%
interest in the Joslyn Oil Sands Project in Alberta, Canada for C$500
million.
"This acquisition is consistent with our strategy of focusing on long
lived, large resource in place projects. This is an outstanding project
which will provide a significant supply of oil on the North American
continent," said Oxy Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ray R.
Irani.
The Joslyn project is one of the premier oil sands projects in the
world. Operated by Total, it holds over 8 billion barrels of bitumen in
place and the recoverable reserves, net to Occidental, are estimated at
370 million barrels. While the project is still in the early stage of
development, it currently has more than 1,800 delineation wells drilled
to date to confirm the resource potential. The project is being
developed by steam assisted gravity drainage (in process) and surface
mining. Occidental expects to spend approximately $2 billion over a
number of years to develop the reserves. Production, net to Occidental,
from the mining operation is expected to commence in 2014 at
approximately 11,000 barrels of oil per day ("Bopd") and grow to a
plateau of approximately 31,000 Bopd.
Closing of this transaction is expected in the third quarter of 2008 and
is subject to government approvals.
About Oxy
Occidental Petroleum Corporation is an international oil and gas
exploration and production company with operations in North America,
Middle East/North Africa and Latin America regions. Oxy is the fourth
largest U.S. oil and gas company, based on equity market capitalization.
Oxy's wholly owned subsidiary, OxyChem, manufactures and markets
chlor-alkali products and vinyls. Oxy is committed to safeguarding the
environment, protecting the safety and health of employees and
neighboring communities and upholding high standards of social
responsibility in all of the company's worldwide operations.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this release that contain words such as "will," "expect"
or "estimate," or otherwise relate to the future, are forward-looking
and involve risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect
expected results. Factors that could cause results to differ materially
include, but are not limited to: exploration risks such as drilling of
unsuccessful wells, global commodity pricing fluctuations and
supply/demand considerations for oil, gas and chemicals; higher than
expected costs; political risks; changes in tax rates; unrealized
acquisition benefits or higher than expected integration costs; and not
successfully completing (or any material delay in) any expansion,
capital expenditure, acquisition or disposition. The United States
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) permits oil and natural gas
companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only proved
reserves demonstrated by actual production or conclusive formation tests
to be economically producible under existing economic and operating
conditions. We use certain terms in this presentation, such as
recoverable reserves, that the SEC's guidelines strictly prohibit us
from using in filings with the SEC. You should not place undue reliance
on these forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date of
this release. Unless legally required, Occidental does not undertake any
obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise. U.S. investors are urged to
consider carefully the disclosure in our Form 10-K, available through
1-888-699-7383 or at www.oxy.com.
You also can obtain a copy from the SEC by calling 1-800-SEC-0330.