Marathon Playing the Canadian Strategy»

Marathon Oil Corp will decide by the end of this year whether to buy a stake in Canadian oilsands production to supply its U.S. Midwest refineries.

"We see a lot of Canadian crude oil coming in the next seven to 10 years from the oilsands" in western Canada, Marathon chief executive Clarence Cazalot said in an interview yesterday at an energy conference in New Orleans. "We may take a position in the oil sands."