Chevron Getting Out Of Coal Industry

SAN RAMON (AP) ― Petroleum giant Chevron Corp. said Friday it plans to get out of the coal industry by the end of the year.

The decision came after the San Ramon-based company determined that new coal technologies were developing too slowly to make staying in the industry a good strategy, Chevron Mining Inc. spokeswoman Margaret Lejuste said.

>> Chevron Profit Jumps 72 Percent To $5.3 Billion

One of the technologies is known as coal-to-liquids, in which coal is processed into a fluid that can be burned.

"Those technologies are so far into the future, 10 to 15 years in the future, they made the strategic decision to focus on other operations other than mining," she said of the company.

Chevron intends to sell off three coal mines in Wyoming, New Mexico and Alabama. The sites include the company's open pit mine outside Kemmerer in western Wyoming, which has been on the market for about a week.

"It's my understanding there are a number of interested parties who are looking at the mine," Lejuste said.

The company also is closing a deal with Tampa, Florida-based Walter Energy to sell its North River underground mine in western Alabama. A tentative agreement with Walter Energy was announced last year.

Chevron also may sell reclaimed land from a surface coal mine in northwestern New Mexico that has been closed since 2009.

The three mines together produced nearly 10 million tons of coal in 2009.

Chevron also intends to sell its 50 percent stake in a proposed coal mine in northern Wyoming.

(© 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)