Total: Looking to shale buys
Total looks to worldwide shale buys
Total is acquiring natural gas shale positions in France, Denmark, Argentina and North Africa, an exploration and production executive said today.
Last week, the company acquired prospective shale acreage in central France, said Patrick Pouyanne, executive for strategy business development at Total.
Total made a foray into the US in January when it entered into a joint venture with Chesapeake Energy in the Barnett Shale in North Texas, Dow Jones reported.
Total agreed to pay $800 million in cash and another $1.45 billion of Chesapeake's future drilling costs over the next three years in exchange for a 25% stake in Chesapeake's operations.
The company also has an agreement for first right of refusal if Chesapeake decides to bring in a partner in the Eagle Ford, a shale gas field in southeast Texas, Pouyanne said in an interview at the IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates' Ceraweek energy conference in Houston.
However, he cautioned that the field would have to mature more before any sort of deal could be struck.
"We have time," he said. While Total is only currently interested in joint ventures where it provides the capital for the US operation, the company is hoping to be the operator in other parts in the world, Pouyanne said.
However, the prospect of economically extracting shale gas in France is far from certain for geological and logistical reasons, Pouyanne said.
The leases in Argentina may have more potential because it is not very urbanised, he said.
"We are just in the beginning of a long story," he said.