According to Reuters, Tokyo Gas has purchased a 25% stake from VirTex Producing Co. in an Eagle Ford shale gas formation. Although the company has reportedly not provided a breakdown of the stake’s value, it did state that it is expecting to spend up to 8 billion yen (US$76.64 million) on the stake and associated drilling.
The project has already commenced commercial production, and is expected to provide a gas equivalent to 200 00 tpy of LNG output for a 20-year period.
In 2013, Tokyo Gas purchased a shale gas stake in the Barnett Basin in Texas, US, from Quicksilver Resources. This provided the company with a gas output equivalent to 0.35 – 0.5 million tpy of LNG output for US$485 million. Nonetheless, Reuters reports that falling energy prices have meant that the company has twice posted impairment losses for the project.
Edited from various sources by David Rowlands