Argentina could be nearing a shale oil and gas boom similar to the one that transformed the US energy landscape as former state monopoly YPF eyes another 1bn barrel discovery adjacent to a Patagonian field whose reserves were more than six times bigger than thought. YPF has almost finished drilling a 502 sq km area [...]
BG Group plans to invest $500 million in Bolivian gas fields over the next five years to develop the country’s growing natural gas industry. According to BG Group VP Bill Way, “there’s a lot of potential… we’ve been here for 10 years and plan to be here much longer.” BG Group currently has interests in [...]
Total (Paris:FP) (LSE:TTA) (NYSE:TOT) announces that it has acquired interests in four exploration licenses in Argentina in partnership with YPF in order to appraise their shale gas potential. Located in the Neuquén Basin, the licenses were awarded by the provincial authorities for a six-year period. The four new blocks are the latest addition to the [...]
A new article in this month’s edition of The Economist details how global oil giants have, over the last several years, been rushing to join the booming shale industry. From Shell to Total, from BP to Chesapeake and ExxonMobil, nearly every major oil company has been making mergers and acquisitions to become players in the [...]
With Shell being the latest multinational to lay a big bet on the shale table, Michael Corkey of the Wall Street Journal wondered Who Is Next to Sell Out of the Marcellus Shale? Evidently there are at least 15 other such deals being discussed related to the Marcellus Shale. With Exxon, Shell and Total having [...]
Reliance Industries Ltd., the owner of the world’s largest fuel-making complex, is in talks with Atlas Energy Inc. to invest in the U.S. natural-gas producer’s shale assets, a person familiar with the negotiations said. The talks between Reliance, which is controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, and Moon Township, Pennsylvania-based Atlas are in preliminary stages, the [...]
There’s one thing that major oil companies can’t get enough of these days–unconventional gas. Virtually every deal that big oil has cut in recent months focused on resources of this type. ExxonMobil agreed in December to pay around $30 billion for XTO Energy, which specializes in extracting gas trapped in shale rock in the U.S. [...]
Schlumberger’s $11 billion takover of a smaller rival, Smith Industries, seems to be a big bet on unconventional natural gas production in the United States. In making the deal, Schlumberger is apparently hoping that Smith’s reputation and extensive domestic network will help position it as the top player in an increasingly hot sector of the [...]
French oil giant Total on Monday became the latest major oil company to cut a deal for access to prolific shale gas fields in the U.S., but it probably won’t be the last. Oil companies are looking to expand holdings of natural gas amid stricter environmental laws and forecasts that use of cleaner-burning fuel will [...]
