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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Chevron Corp., the second largest U.S. oil company, said Thursday it acquired five oil leases covering 180,000 acres for an undisclosed price in northern Alberta, Canada.
The San Ramon-based oil company said an estimated 7.5 billion barrels of oil are under the land and that two unnamed companies have the option to each purchase 20 percent of the leases. Chevron already has a 20 percent stake in the Athabasca Oil Sands Project, which is controlled by Royal Dutch Shell PLC and based 24 miles southwest from the fields covered by the new leases.
Canada has become an energy powerhouse by separating petroleum from sand and turning it into oil. So-called oil sands are found in an area almost half the size of Colorado spread across central Alberta and produce about 1 million barrels of oil a day. That figure is expected to reach 2.7 million by 2015 and Canada estimates its oil sands will yield as much as 175 billion barrels of oil, making it second only to Saudi Arabia in crude oil reserves and enough to satisfy U.S. demand for at least a generation.
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