Major oil companies are rapidly buying the small players in the Marcellus Shale gas play. Exxon Mobil Corporation just spent $1.7 billion to purchase Phillips Resources, Inc. and TWP Inc. This follows Chevron’s recent acquisition of Atlas Energy and other transactions. More on the FuelFix.com blog.
Much of the discussion at ExxonMobil’s annual shareholder meeting was on the subject of hydraulic fracturing.
The topic was also on the agenda at Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting.
An article on Platts.com reports on shareholder resolutions at ExxonMobil, Chevron and Ultra Petroleum calling for those companies to disclose information about the environmental and financial risks of hydraulic fracturing in the production of natural gas.
Exxon announced that it plans to sell 49% of its interest in shale gas plays in the Podlasie Basin of Poland. More in an article at Reuters.
ExxonMobil has placed an order with China’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Company for four LNG transport ships. The ships are a joint venture between Exxon and Mitsui OSK Lines. More at MarineLog.com.
Petrohawk Energy plans to sell its Fayetteville Shale assets to Exxon Mobil for $650 million. An article in Reuters describes the deal and has comments from industry experts who say that the sale price was lower than they expected.
Several companies have considered building an LNG import terminal off the coast of New Jersey. ExxonMobil says that they are no longer interested. More at Platts.com.
Four years ago lots of plans were being made to bring LNG into the United States. Now the plans are for shipping it OUT.
Steve Kirchhoff, the ExxonMobil vice president for natural gas, reviewed a number of factors that will determine the long-term direction of the natural gas industry in the United States. More at PennEnergy.com.
A blog post on the New York Times website has some quotes from William Colton, an Exxon vice president, about natural gas being a beneficiary of carbon emissions policy.
Will natural gas companies shut-in some of their wells in response to low gas prices? A Reuters article reports that Exxon does not plan to shut in the former XTO Energy wells but ConocoPhillips has shut-in some wells.
There are a number of reasons why some companies do not shut-in wells. These include: the possibility of even lower prices in the future, difficulty restarting the well and obtaining original production levels, long-term supply agreements and more. For more details see the “Industry and Market Structure” page of NaturalGas.org (fifth paragraph from the bottom).
An article in the Calgary Herald explores how several large oil and gas companies have recently taken big stakes in the natural gas shales (ExxonMobil, Total, Shell, Reliance) and a coal company, Consol Energy, is buying natural gas assets from Dominion Resources.
According to an article in the Dallas News, Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil, says refueling stations are the big problem for the widespread use of natural gas as a vehicle fuel. But, he also says that natural gas is becoming a much more important fuel for electricity generation.
An article at Market Watch reports that Exxon Mobil now has approval from both US and Dutch regulatory agencies for its purchase of XTO Energy. The significance of this deal is the entry of Exxon Mobil into the US onshore natural gas sector.
Although international oil companies such as ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and BP were not pioneers in the development of United States gas shales they are now working to acquire positions in Europe. More in a Financial Times article.
Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil, says refueling stations are the big problem for the widespread use of natural gas as a vehicle fuel. But, he also says that natural gas is becoming a much more important fuel for electricity generation. More in a Dallas Morning News article.
Exxon Mobil has made some major recent investments in onshore natural gas that have some people asking if the company is changing directions. An article on the Houston Chronicle website reports on comments by David Rosenthal, Exxon Mobil’s VP of Investor Relations that address these questions.
An article in the New York Times reports that members of the House Energy and Commerce panel will examine Exxon Mobil’s plans to acquire significant acreage in the Marcellus, Haynesville and Barnett gas shale plays as part of a deal with XTO Energy. Exxon is concerned about future regulations that will limit the use of hydraulic fracturing to develop these assets.
