Marathon Oil Corporation Completes Acquisition of Western Oil Sands
HOUSTON, Oct. 18 / -- Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO) announced today that it has completed its acquisition of Western Oil Sands Inc. (TSX: WTO) through a cash and securities transaction of approximately US$5.8 billion, plus Western's outstanding debt valued at approximately US$1.1 billion, for a total transaction value of US$6.9 billion.
Under the terms of the agreement, Western shareholders will receive CDN$3.8 billion in cash (US$3.9 billion at the current exchange rate) and shares of Marathon common stock or securities exchangeable for Marathon common stock aggregating to 34.3 million shares valued at US$1.9 billion(1).
Trading in Western common stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange will terminate as of the close of trading on Oct. 19, 2007.
Commenting on this transaction, Clarence P. Cazalot, Jr., president and CEO of Marathon said, "Marathon's acquisition of Western will enable us to realize our fully-integrated strategy to link oil sands production with heavy oil upgrade projects at our refineries, and thereby maximize both the recovery and value of these assets. The world-class Athabasca Oil Sands Project provides access to total net resource of approximately 2 billion barrels of mineable bitumen while there is an additional 600 million net barrels of potential in-situ resource, together providing significant future growth opportunities."
Marathon is an integrated international energy company engaged in exploration and production; oil sands mining; integrated gas; and refining, marketing and transportation operations. Marathon, which is based in Houston, Texas, has principal operations in the United States, Angola, Canada, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Indonesia, Ireland, Libya, Norway and the United Kingdom. Marathon is the fourth largest United States-based integrated oil company and the nation's fifth largest refiner.
(1) Based upon the average closing price of Marathon common stock for the five-day period around the initial announcement of the Western acquisition.
Source: Marathon Oil Corporation
CONTACT: Media Relations, Lee Warren, +1-713-296-4103, or Scott Scheffler, +1-713-296-4102, or Investor Relations, Ken Matheny,
+1-713-296-4114, Howard Thill, +1-713-296-4140, or Michol Ecklund,
+1-713-296-3919
Web site: http://www.marathon.com/
