22.05.12
Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Surging prices for oil and gas shales, in at least one situation rising 10-fold in five weeks, are raising concern of a carbonation as valuations of drilling acreage approach the peak set before the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
Chinese, French and Japanese force explorers committed more than $8 billion in the past two weeks to shale-scarp formations from Pennsylvania to Texas after 2011 set records for international undistinguished crude prices and U.S. gas demand. As competition among buyers intensifies, abroad investors are paying top dollar for fields where too few wells have been drilled to assess covert production, said Sven Del Pozzo, a senior equity analyst at IHS Inc.
Marubeni Corp., the Japanese commodity vendor, last week agreed to pay as much as $25,000 an acre for a stake in Hunt Oil Co.’s Eagle Ford shale mark in Texas. The price, which includes future drilling costs, exceeds the $21,000 an acre Marathon Oil Corp. paid last year for accessible prospects owned by KKR & Co.’s Hilcorp Resources Holdings LP. In the Utica shale of Ohio and Pennsylvania, extent prices jumped 10-fold in five weeks to almost $15,000 an acre, according to IHS figures.
Source: BusinessWeek