Spending

Marathon Oil Corp. has agreed to pay $3.5 billion to acquire the Eagle Ford Shale assets of Hilcorp Resources Holdings LP. Along with other transactions expected to close by the end of this year, Marathon’s Eagle Ford position is expected to more than double to 285,000 net acres, the company said.

Range Resources Corp. expects capital spending to be flat from 2011 to 2012 as the company becomes more efficient in the Marcellus Shale and completes its sale of assets in the Barnett Shale, but to rise in 2013 as the company increases drilling.

Range Resources Corp. expects capital spending to be flat from 2011 to 2012 as the company becomes more efficient in the Marcellus Shale and completes its sale of assets in the Barnett Shale, but to rise in 2013 as the company increases drilling.

Faced with “unsustainably low” natural gas prices, onshore independent Encana Corp. will redirect up to $1 billion of its 2011 capital spending from dry gas output to natural gas liquids (NGL) and oil production, CEO Randy Eresman said Wednesday.

Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s shift to balance its natural gas-weighted portfolio required a lot of spending last year — an estimated $4.7 billion — to acquire liquids-rich property, but the risky outlay already is proving its worth, CEO Aubrey McClendon said this week.

Stronger prices for oil and natural gas liquids (NGL) have prompted Bill Barrett Corp. to increase its 2011 spending with a focus on its liquids-rich Gibson Gulch program, the company said. Production guidance has also been raised.

Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the midstream sector last year got back to the all-time high level of 2006. Nearly all (94%) of the activity last year was driven by spending on gas pipelines and gas gathering and processing facilities in the United States, and shale gas plays featured prominently in that activity, according to the “IHS Herold 2011 Global Midstream M&A Review.”

Shale player Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. grew its total proved reserves by 116% last year, and the value of reserves grew 171% from the year-ago period, the Houston-based company said Tuesday. And there will be more growth like that this year if the company’s CEO is correct.

National Fuel Gas Co.’s exploration subsidiary is adding 42 Bcfe of proved natural gas reserves to its Marcellus Shale holdings in a deal with joint venture (JV) partner EOG Resources Inc.