Occidental Petroleum Corporation signed 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.

Tags: Occidental Petroleum Corporation