Shales

Norwegian heavyweight Statoil ASA, which already holds substantial assets in the Marcellus and Eagle Ford shales, has a deal on the table to acquire Austin, TX-based independent Brigham Exploration Co., which would give it access to the Williston Basin’s Bakken and Three Forks oily formations.

The Utica Shale could be more profitable than the Marcellus Shale, but it could also prove to be more challenging, a Consol Energy Inc. executive suggested at a conference in Pittsburgh on Thursday.

An interior oil and natural gas supply glut, the result of strong output from shales and tight oil and gas plays, is developing because infrastructure can’t keep up, and that in turn is pressuring prices, according to Canaccord Genuity.

Norwegian heavyweight Statoil ASA, which already holds substantial assets in the Marcellus and Eagle Ford shales, has a deal on the table to acquire Austin, TX-based independent Brigham Exploration Co., which would give it access to the Williston Basin’s Bakken and Three Forks oily formations.

Antero Resources has acquired from CONSOL Energy a 7% overriding royalty interest in approximately 115,647 net acres in the Marcellus Shale in southwestern Pennsylvania and north central West Virginia for $193 million, the companies said Monday. The deal closed Sept. 21 with an effective date of July 1, 2011.

Rex Energy Corp. said results from its first test well into the Upper Devonian/Burkett Shale just north of Pittsburgh are encouraging enough to justify additional wells into the formation directly above the Marcellus Shale in the coming year.

A natural gas processing and fractionation plant, which is being built along the Ohio River in Natrium, WV, to serve producers in the Marcellus and Utica shales, is 90% contracted and should be in service by the end of 2012, Dominion said Thursday.

Following the trend toward liquids-rich basins, Penn Virginia Corp. recently announced plans to sell much of its Mid-continent assets to an undisclosed buyer for $30.5 million.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMP) midstream assets in the Eagle Ford and Haynesville shales are positioned to see an uplift in throughput thanks to the pending acquisition of Petrohawk Energy Corp. by BHP Billiton Ltd. and the expectation that the latter will be spending a lot more in the plays, CEO Rich Kinder told financial analysts Wednesday.