LOS ANGELES, June 23, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- 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.