LOS ANGELES, June 3, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Offsets Group to acquire a 24.5 percent interest in the Dolphin Project and Dolphin Energy Limited (DEL) for $310 million. The Dolphin Project and DEL is a partnership that includes the Offsets Group (51 percent interest) and TotalFinaElf (24.5 percent interest).
The DEL partners will collaborate on the $3.5 billion Dolphin Project which consists of two parts -- (1) a development and production sharing agreement with Qatar to develop and produce natural gas and condensate in Qatar's North Field; and (2) the rights for DEL to build, own and operate a 260-mile-long, 48-inch export pipeline to transport 2 billion cubic feet per day of dry natural gas from Qatar to markets in the UAE for a period of 25 years.
When Dolphin becomes fully operational, this project will add incremental daily production of about 125 million cubic feet of natural gas and 9,000 barrels of liquids net to Oxy -- equal to approximately 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Production is scheduled to begin in late 2005.
Statements in this presentation that contain words such as "will" or "expect," 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: global commodity pricing fluctuations, and supply/demand considerations, for oil, gas and chemicals; higher-than-expected costs; and not successfully completing (or any material delay in) any expansion, capital expenditure, acquisition, or disposition. Occidental disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.