Endeavour buys US stakes in US shale plays

6th Jan 2010 12:27

Houston based energy company Endeavour International has snapped up interests in four US resource plays.The company has spent around $27m buying up 526,000 gross acres (165,000 net acres), comprising the highly prospective Haynesville and Marcellus gas shale plays in North Louisiana/East Texas and Western Pennsylvania, respectively, and new frontier plays in Alabama and Montana.The company has taken a 50% stake in Cohort Energy’s assets in the Haynesville and Marcellus plays, for an initial $15m investment. Endeavour will pay a share of Cohort’s drilling and completion expenditures on the fields over the next few years.Endeavour is paying an initial $8m for a 50% interest in Hillwood Energy Alabama LP’s position in the unproven multi-target gas play in Alabama.The company’s stake in the unproven multiple reservoir oil play in Montana will also be 50%, and is being acquired from a private company for an initial cash consideration of $3.75m.‘Anticipated production from these plays combined with our North Sea development projects has the potential to grow Endeavour's production to meet our previously stated five-year production goal of 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, balanced between the US and UK,’ claimed Endeavour’s chairman, chief executive officer and president, William Transier.The acquisitions have been funded from existing cash reserves.