Norway’s Statoil Shopping for More Shale Acreage in U.S.
Reuters is reporting that Norwegian energy giant Statoil is on the hunt for more shale acreage in the U.S. Does that mean Statoil is looking to pick up more acreage in the Marcellus or Utica Shale area?
“Way back” in 2008, Statoil purchased a 32.5% interest in Chesapeake Energy’s Marcellus Shale acreage, buying them 600,000 net acres at the time (according to the MDN’s Marcellus and Utica Shale Databook, Vol. 1). But just a few months ago, MDN reported that Statoil was moving away from “dry gas” areas and to “wet gas” and “oily” areas, like the North Dakota’s Bakken Shale (see this MDN story).
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There’s a new “alpha dog” of Utica Shale wells in Ohio that’s upstaging Chesapeake Energy’s Buell well. The Gulfport Energy Wagner 1-28H well in Harrison County is producing an enormous amount of natural gas—record-breaking in fact.
An energy industry consultant and investment analyst writes an interesting article on Seeking Alpha about Exxon Mobil’s commitment to dry shale shale (“methane only”). Richard Zeits characterizes Exxon’s shift away from dry to wet gas (oil and natural gas liquids) as “radical,” citing Exxon’s onshore rig count decline from 71 to 50 rigs (a 30% drop) since the beginning of this year as evidence of the change. He estimates they use less than 10 of the remaining 50 rigs for drilling in dry gas areas.
Now that most of the families in and around Dimock, PA who previously sued Cabot Oil & Gas claiming their water had been contaminated by nearby drilling have settled with the company (