Newfield Exploration Co. and Hess Corp. launched plans Wednesday to jointly explore 140,000 gross acres of the Marcellus Shale.

Financial details were not disclosed; the terms of the transaction are dependent upon Newfield and Hess finalizing additional agreements over the next few weeks, the companies said.

The equal partnership would cover acreage primarily in Susquehanna and Wayne counties, PA. Newfield, based in Houston, would operate the venture.

“Today marks our entry into the Marcellus Shale, likely to become one of our nation’s largest natural gas resource plays,” said Newfield CEO Lee K. Boothby on Wednesday. “Today, with substantially all of our acreage held by production in the Woodford Shale, it’s a great time for us to enter an important new focus area and apply our expertise to a similar play of scale. We expect to build a business here, just as we have done in the Midcontinent and the Rocky Mountains.”

Newfield entered the Woodford Shale in 2003 and assembled 165,000 net acres. To date the producer has drilled close to 300 horizontal wells; current gross operated production is about 300 MMcfe/d.

Marcellus drilling is not expected to begin until 2010. Newfield said this year’s Marcellus Shale activities would be budgeted under its existing $1.45 billion capital expenditures.

“Entering the Marcellus Shale builds on the unconventional expertise Hess has in North Dakota’s Bakken play,” said Greg Hill, president of Worldwide Exploration and Production for Hess, which is headquartered in New York City. “Hess has an established technical capability in horizontal, multi-stage fractured wells, and we have a reputation for sound environmental operating practices.”

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