Canada: INPEX Acquires 40 Percent in Shale Gas Project from Nexen

INPEX CORPORATION announced that through INPEX Gas British Columbia Ltd., it has agreed in principle to acquire a 40% participating interest in the shale gas projects in the Horn River, Cordova and Liard basins from Nexen Inc. (Nexen), a Canadian exploration and production company.

This is the first case and it is a major milestone for INPEX to participate in a shale gas development and production project. This transaction is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions precedent.

The Horn River, Cordova and Liard basins are located in northeast corner of British Columbia, about 1,000km north-northwest of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. These three basins are considered to contain high potential of large-scale shale gas reserves. The joint venture lands are comprised of Horn River 366km2 , Cordova 333km2 , and Liard 517km2 , forming relatively large portions of each basin. In the Horn River basin, production has already started and it now produces shale gas of approximately 50 million standard cubic feet per day (8,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day). In the Horn River and Cordova basins, we envision a full-scale production of the shale gas is expected to be up to 1,250 million standard cubic feet per day (200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day).

In the Horn River and Cordova basins, INPEX and Nexen will proceed with appraisal and development of the resource. In the Liard basin, INPEX and Nexen will conduct the necessary evaluation activities for further shale gas development.

INPEX plans to dispatch its experts as secondees to this project, which help the project benefit from INPEX’s wide range of gas development experiences around the world. Thus, INPEX is going to be involved in this promising shale gas development and production opportunity.

INPEX is seeking to expand global E&P activities as one of the fundamental strategies, and the acquisition of the shale gas project will meet a strategic objective to strengthen INPEX’s natural gas asset portfolio. INPEX continues to aggressively pursue oil and gas exploration and production projects targeting also unconventional hydrocarbon resources by acquiring expertise and knowledge of shale gas development projects brought by this opportunity.

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LNG World News Staff, November 29, 2011