Marubeni Buys Eagle Ford Shale Assets (USA)

January 6, 2012

Marubeni Corporation announced that Marubeni Eagle Ford Limited Partnership, a U.S. subsidiary of Marubeni, has entered into an agreement with Dallas based Hunt Oil Company, one of the world’s largest privately-owned independent oil and gas companies, to acquire a 35% working interest in the Eagle Ford shale oil and gas play covering approximately 52,000 net acres of oil and gas leases located in Texas.

The Project has plans for several hundred wells to be sequentially drilled for 5 – 10 years, with total development costs (including acquisition costs on Marubeni’s share basis) of approximately U.S.$ 1.3 billion. In addition, Marubeni and Hunt have agreed to jointly acquire additional acreage in the Eagle Ford shale oil and gas area.

The Eagle Ford oil and gas shale play currently produces high-quality light crude oil, and is one of the most attractive and promising shale oil and gas resource plays in the U.S. Marubeni said that it believes that this Project, including future expansion and the potential new businesses associated with it, will become a solid base for Marubeni providing a strong cash flow and profit on the mid- to long-term basis. The company’s position in the Eagle Ford is believed to be prospective, and Hunt, the operator of this Project, has extensive experience and expertise in the development and operation of a number of oil and gas shale plays including the Bakken located in North Dakota in the United States.

Marubeni has positioned its energy and mineral resources business, including oil and gas exploration and development, as a strategically important business area, and has already been involved in projects in the Gulf of Mexico, the North Sea (U.K.), India, Qatar and the Niobrara Shale Oil (U.S.), which started its initial oil production in October, 2011. As the result of this Project, Marubeni’s total acreage for shale oil play is approximately 72,000 net acres, which makes Marubeni the largest acreage holder among Japanese firms.

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LNG World News Staff, January 6, 2011