Ford

A unit of Japan’s ITOCHU Corp. is to acquire a one-quarter interest in Niobrara oil shale acreage in southeastern Wyoming, marking the first time a Japanese company is participating in a U.S. oil shale project.

Penn Virginia Corp. has paid $31.1 million to acquire nearly 6,800 net acres in the Eagle Ford Shale, primarily in Gonzales County, TX. The acquisition was funded with cash on hand, the company said. The new acreage is estimated to contain more than 40 horizontal well locations, with Penn Virginia’s working interest averaging about 73%.

Chesapeake Energy Corp., long one of the most active natural gas drillers and producers in North America, is stealthily making a land grab to secure domestic oilfields, part of a long-range plan to rebalance a portfolio that now is 93% weighted to gas, CEO Aubrey McClendon said last week.

With Nymex floor trading closed Tuesday in remembrance of former President Gerald R. Ford, electronic trading of natural gas futures on IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) and Globex was light, as many traders chose to extend the New Year’s Day holiday weekend by an extra day. In electronic Globex trading, the February contract put in a low of $6.100 and was trading at the day’s $6.309 high late Tuesday, up a penny from Friday’s $6.299 close.