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Northern O&G Buys 64K Acres of RIL’s Non-Op M-U Assets for $250M

Northern Oil and Gas, Inc., a company that invests in non-operated oil and gas assets (they let others do the drilling), announced yesterday it has purchased 64,000 net acres producing ~120 MMcfe/d (million cubic feet equivalent per day) in the Marcellus/Utica from Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). The cash purchase price is $250 million.
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Judge OKs Class Action Royalty Lawsuit Against 3 NEPA Drillers

On October 3, 2016, landowner James Slamon filed a lawsuit against Carrizo and Reliance Industries in the Susquehanna County (PA) Court of Common Pleas. Slamon alleged Carrizo and Reliance underpaid royalties on oil and gas leases to him and a class of other landowners “exceeding one hundred members.” The drillers got the case moved to federal court on October 31, 2016. Fast forward to this past Monday and a judge in the federal court case has certified (in part) the class-action request. The lawsuit will now move forward.
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India’s RIL, Carrizo Sell NEPA Marcellus Assets for $210M

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is the single largest company in India, and one of the largest energy companies in the world. RIL invested $3.5 billion in a Marcellus joint venture with Atlas Energy in 2010, and later battled Chevron to buy Atlas–but Chevron won, so RIL became a jv partner with Chevron. RIL currently has 3 U.S. shale joint ventures: the Chevron jv in the Marcellus (owns 40% of that acreage), a jv with Carrizo Oil & Gas in the northeast PA Marcellus (owns 60% of that acreage), and a jv with Pioneer Natural Resources in the Texas Eagle Ford (owns 45% of that acreage). Back in 2015, RIL signaled they are looking to dump all of their U.S. shale assets (see Indian Giant RIL Looking to Dump its Marcellus Joint Ventures). It took a few years, but earlier today Banpu, Thailand’s largest coal producer, announced that is has purchased all of the RIL/Carrizo jv (from both RIL and Carrizo) in northeastern PA–for $210 million. Does Banpu sound familiar? It should. This is the fifth investment Banpu, via its American subsidiary Kalnin Ventures, has made in the northeast Marcellus…
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10 Sell-Out Big Oil Companies Support Paris Global Warming Treaty

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Eight CEOs from the Gang of 10

In a repugnant and self-serving public relations stunt, the CEOs for 10 of the world’s largest oil and gas companies are pushing for “an effective climate change agreement to be reached at next month’s 21st session of the United Nations (UN) Conference of Parties to the UN Framework on Climate Change (COP21)” at the meeting being held in Paris in early December. That is, they’re pretending they believe in the total hoax that mankind is causing global warming and therefore all of the nations of the earth, including the United States, should give up their sovereignty to achieve something they have no control over–whether or not global average temps go up more than 2 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. Conveniently, most of us won’t be alive to see whether or not that ever happens. Fortunately none of the big oil companies signing this asinine statement are U.S.-based companies, although they all have serious (and large) operations in the U.S. Who are the Gang of 10?…
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Indian Giant RIL Looking to Dump its Marcellus Joint Ventures

The single largest company in India, and one of the largest energy companies in the world, is Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). As of July 2013, RIL had invested a massive $5.7 billion in three shale joint ventures–the bulk of that in the Marcellus Shale. The company was planning to double it’s shale investment to over $10 billion! But a funny thing happened on the way the Forum. Prices for oil and gas started to slump, and RIL’s return on their shale investments slumped with it. RIL invested $3.5 billion in a Marcellus joint venture with Atlas Energy in 2010 (see Joint Venture Between Reliance Industries and Atlas Energy Worth $3.5 Billion Over 10 Years). RIL later battled Chevron to buy Atlas–but Chevron won, so RIL became a jv partner with Chevron (see India’s RIL Loses Bidding War for Atlas Energy – $4.3 Billion Deal with Chevron Goes Forward). RIL currently has 3 jv’s, the Chevron jv in the Marcellus (owns 40% of that acreage), a jv with Carrizo Oil & Gas in the Marcellus (owns 60% of that acreage), and a jv with Pioneer Natural Resources in the Texas Eagle Ford (owns 45% of that acreage). Now comes word that RIL wants to exit all of their jv’s and wash their hands of U.S. shale, a 180 degree reversal from just a few years ago…
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Marcellus Ethane will Head to India Aboard 6 New Japanese Ships

You may recall that all of the LNG (liquefied natural gas) that will be produced at the under construction export facility in Cove Point, Maryland will be sold to two countries: Japan and India (see Dominion’s Cove Point LNG Facility Achieves Important Milestones). Japan and India are teaming up again–but this time it’s for America’s ethane instead of methane. Reliance Industries Ltd., India’s single largest company of any kind (conglomerate that includes oil and gas drilling) has ordered up 6 Very Large Ethane Carriers (VLECs) for an undisclosed sum from Japanese company Mitsui. The VLEC ships will transport some 1.5 million tons of ethane per year to India, where it will be used to feed Indian ethane cracker plants. Since RIL has two joint ventures in the Marcellus, it’s a safe bet that some of that exported ethane will be coming from the Marcellus…
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India’s RIL Doubles US Shale Investment to $10.8B! Mostly Marcellus

The single largest company in India is Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). A few years ago, RIL invested in three U.S. shale joint ventures (see India’s RIL: Shale Gas a Major Contributor to Revenue by 2015 for background). RIL has invested $5.7 billion in the jv’s to date–a massive investment. Word has just come out that they plan to double that investment in the next three years–to a whopping $10.8 billion.

Two of the three jv’s, and most of the investment, will be in the Marcellus Shale. RIL says by the time the project is done, they will have drilled 3,846 shale wells in the US…
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India’s RIL: Shale Gas a Major Contributor to Revenue by 2015

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s largest private company of any kind and an energy giant, made three investments two years ago in U.S. shale plays via joint ventures—two of them in the Marcellus and one in the Eagle Ford. The company said in a recent analyst presentation those investments are starting to pay off and they expect their shale gas volumes to grow at an annual rate of 50% by 2015. If it does, it will contribute 8-10% of RIL’s earnings. That’s a pretty big deal—from nothing to contributing 8-10% inside of five years for the largest company in India.

An update on RIL’s three U.S. shale joint ventures:

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Recent Marcellus Shale Joint Venture Deals

Joint ventures are a common way for oil and gas companies to share risk, expertise and resources. Here is a list of recent deals in the Marcellus shale:

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Reliance Industries of India in Bidding War with Chevron to Buy Atlas Energy

India’s largest private sector company, and one of the world’s largest energy companies, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), is in a bidding war with Chevron to buy Atlas Energy. A primary motivator for both companies is the large number of net acres Atlas controls in the Marcellus Shale region. Just last year RIL and Atlas formed a joint venture, a deal that would have been worth $3.5 billion over ten years. Now that Atlas is on the block, RIL wants to tie the knot permanently. But another suitor has arrived and is vying for Atlas’ affections by offering $4.3 billion:
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Atlas Energy Figures Out a Way to Increase Marcellus Shale Gas Production an Average 138% Per Well

Atlas Energy’s Marcellus Shale gas output is up 21% in the second quarter from the first quarter of 2010. At the end of June, their net production rate in the Marcellus region was 59 Mmcfe (million cubic feet of natural gas equivalents) per day. The company brought eight new horizontal Marcellus Shale wells online in southwestern Pennsylvania from April to June with average peak average daily rates of 5.1 Mmcf per day.

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Atlas Energy/Reliance Industries Pay $192 Million for Leases on 42K Acres in PA Marcellus Shale

The recently announced joint venture between Atlas Energy and Indian energy giant Reliance Industries (a deal worth $3.5 billion over 10 years) is already bearing fruit. Together they’ve just forked over $192 million to secure leases for more land in Pennsylvania.

Independent oil and gas company Atlas Energy will buy 42,344 acres in the gas-rich Marcellus shale along with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), weeks after the two announced a joint venture.

The companies will buy the acreage in Fayette, Washington, Indiana, Westmoreland, Armstrong and Clarion Counties of Pennsylvania at an average price of $4,532 per acre.

Following Wednesday’s deal, the Atlas-RIL joint venture will control about 343,000 Marcellus Shale acres, of which about 206,000 acres are net to Atlas.*

According to the Atlas Energy website:

Substantially all of the acreage to be acquired is held by production and is either contiguous with the joint venture’s existing acreage or is in concentrated blocks of acreage. [Atlas] believes that it will be able to drill over 450 horizontal wells on this acquired acreage assuming 1,000 foot spacing between lateral wells.**

*Hindustan Times/Reuters (Apr 22) – Atlas, RIL to buy more shale acreage for $4,532 per acre

**Atlas Energy Press Release (Apr 21) – Atlas Energy, Inc. and Reliance Industries Jointly Acquire over 42,000 Additional Acres within Their Core Marcellus Shale Position

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Joint Venture Between Reliance Industries and Atlas Energy Worth $3.5 Billion Over 10 Years

Indian energy giant Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has entered a joint venture with Atlas Energy (based in Pittsburgh). MDN previously reported on the rumors of an impending deal between the two companies. Reliance, India’s largest energy company and one of the largest energy companies in the world, will get 40 percent (120,000 acres) of Atlas Energy’s Marcellus Shale leases as part of the deal. The terms are a bit complex, but in the end, this is the largest deal to date between energy companies in the Marcellus Shale with a value of $3.5 billion over 10 years:

Reliance will bear an acquisition cost of $339 million and pay an additional $1.36 billion as capital costs for the development programme over seven and a half years.

However, the investment would be scaled up to $3.5 billion over the next 10 years, RIL CFO Alok Agarwal said today in Mumbai.

The acreage will support the drilling of over 3,000 wells with a net resource potential of approximately 13.3 tcfe (5.3 tcfe net to RIL).*

From the Atlas press statement:

Atlas Energy, Inc. (“Atlas” or “the Company”) announces today its entry into a joint venture transaction with a wholly owned affiliate of Reliance Industries Limited (“Reliance”), the largest private sector company in India and a global energy leader, pursuant to which Atlas will transfer an interest in its Marcellus Shale position equal to 120,000 net acres in a transaction valued at $1.7 billion. Reliance will pay approximately $340 million in cash upon closing and an additional $1.36 billion in the form of a drilling carry. Atlas will serve as the development operator for the joint venture. Reliance will have the option to operate in certain project areas in the coming years outside of Atlas’ core operating areas of Fayette, Greene, Washington, and Westmoreland Counties in southwestern Pennsylvania.

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Atlas Energy Talking to Reliance Industries About Marcellus Shale Partnership – Billion Dollar Deal in the Making?

As MDN reported on Feb. 24, Atlas Energy is looking for a partner to help fund its operations in the Marcellus Shale. They may have found one, Indian energy giant Reliance Industries:

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, controlled by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, and Moon Township, Pennsylvania-based Atlas are in preliminary stages, the person said yesterday, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private.*

The deal is likely to be worth several billion dollars, if recent deals are any indicator: CONSOL’s impending purchase of Dominion’s Marcellus Shale operations for $3.475 billion; Mitsui’s investment of $1.4 billion in Anadarko earlier this year; and Statoil’s investment of $3.4 billion in Chesapeake last year. If the Reliance/Atlas deal pans out and fetches the same rate of $14,000 per acre investment that the Mitsui/Anadarko deal did, it would be a $3.7 billion deal—the largest Marcellus deal yet.

*Bloomberg (Mar 16) – Reliance Said to Be in Talks With Atlas to Buy Shale Gas Assets