Chevron Corporation is gearing up to quit coal mining. The petroleum giant is actively looking for a buyer for its open pit mine located out of Kemmerer in western Wyoming.
Margaret Lejuste the spokeswoman for Chevron Mining said that the new coal technologies were too far off to make staying in coal a good strategy. So the company has decided to do away with its current coal assets.
In addition to the mine in Wyoming the company has two more coal mines one is the North River underground mine in western Alabama and the other is a New Mexico surface coal mine project which closed operations in 2009. The three mines had a production of almost 10 million tons coal in 2009.
The Alabama mine is likely to be sold to Walter Energy, a Tampa, Florida based company. California based San Ramon may be likely to pick up the mine in north western New Mexico. Chevron is also going to get rid of its 50% stake in the proposed mine outside Sheridan in northern Wyoming. The company hopes to be totally out of coal by the end of this year.
Chevron is one of the world's six "supermajor" oil companies. For the past five years, Chevron has been continuously ranked as the one of America's 5 largest corporations by Fortune 500.