Occidental Petroleum (OXY)

Enerplus Resources Fund has sold its 15 per cent interest in the Joslyn oil sands lease for about $500-million to Occidental Petroleum Corp.

Enerplus said Monday it has invested $115-million in the northeastern Alberta project, and the proceeds will initially be used to pay down bank debt but later it “expects to redeploy the funds towards accretive acquisitions and development opportunities.”

The trust had said in May that it intended to sell its holding in Joslyn, which is controlled and operated by French oil and gas giant Total.

The sale enables Enerplus to focus on its wholly owned Kirby steam-assisted gravity drainage project and other developments.

Enerplus said it remains on track to file the regulatory application this autumn for the initial 10,000-barrel-a-day project at Kirby, where future expansion could increase production to between 30,000 and 40,000 per day.

Occidental has established a reputation as an industry leader in using enhanced oil recovery techniques to extract oil from old fields where traditional methods of extraction are no longer useful. Their finding and development costs are also lower than the industry average.

Occidental’s strong oil reserves and production base enable it to take advantage of the growing demand for oil and natural gas for a sustained period.