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NEW YORK - Companies eager to capitalize
on the shale revolution are buying up other companies that have
deeds to land with access to reserves.

Two multibillion-dollar deals in the first quarter show the
interest companies have in scooping up shale plays for the
resources and technology.
Below are major shale gas and oil acquisitions:
APRIL 2011:
-- Marubeni Corp (8002.T) will pay Marathon Oil Corp
(MRO.N) about $270 million for a 30 percent stake in a U.S.
shale oil project. [nWNAB2649]
FEBRUARY 2011
-- PetroChina (0857.HK) pays Encana Corp (ECA.TO) $5.4
billion for half of a shale gas project. [ID:nN09296031]
-- BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) pays Chesapeake Energy Corp
(CHK.N) $4.75 billion for gas reserves in the Fayetteville
Shale in Arkansas. [ID:nLDE71L1M0]
DECEMBER 2010
-- South Africa's Sasol (SOLJ.J) pays $1.03 billion for a
half share in Talisman Energy Inc (TLM.TO) shale gas property.
[ID:nLDE6BJ04G]
OCTOBER 2010
-- CNOOC Ltd (0883.HK) (CEO.N) agrees to pay Chesapeake
Energy $1.08 billion in cash for one-third of its Eagle Ford
shale in South Texas. [ID:nN10263769]
JUNE 2010:
-- India's largest listed company Reliance Industries
(RELI.BO) will invest $1.36 billion in the U.S. shale gas
assets of Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD.N). [ID:nSGE65N06C]
MAY 2010
-- Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) says it will pay $4.7 billion
cash to buy privately held East Resources Inc, which controls
650,000 net acres (2,600 square kilometers) in the Marcellus
Shale. [ID:nLDE64R0AX]
APRIL 2010:
-- British gas producer BG Group (BG.L) said it would pay
$950 million to buy a 50 percent interest in shale gas assets
in Appalachia from EXCO Resources (XCO.N).
FEBRUARY 2010:
-- S.Korea's KOGAS (036460.KS) invests $1.1 billion in
developing Encana Corp's natural gas fields. [ID:nTOE61R013]
-- Canada's Progress Energy Resources Corp (PRQ.TO) agreed
to buy certain northeast British Columbia Foothills assets for
about C$390 million ($366.2 million) from Suncor Energy
(SU.TO). [ID:nSGE6180KX]
DECEMBER 2009:
-- Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) announced its plan to buy XTO
Energy Inc XTO.N for about $30 billion in stock. XTO's
resource base is the equivalent of 45 trillion cubic feet of
gas and includes shale gas, tight gas, coal bed methane and
shale oil. [ID:nN14126206]
-- Ultra Petroleum Corp (UPL.N) said it would pay about
$400 million to an unnamed private company to buy 80,000 net
acres in the burgeoning U.S. Marcellus Shale region, giving it
about 250,000 net acres and a potential for 1,800 net drilling
sites. [ID:nSGE5BK0EU]
NOVEMBER 2009:
-- Denbury Resources Inc (DNR.N) said it would buy Encore
Acquisition Co for $3.2 billion, creating a company with 426
million barrels of oil equivalent in proved reserves.
[ID:nN01400606]
The acquisition would allow Denbury to leverage its
enhanced-oil-recovery business into Encore's properties in
Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota, and would give it a large
stake in the Bakken shale on the U.S.-Canada border.
JUNE 2009:
-- British gas producer BG Group paid Dallas-based Exco
Resources Inc (XCO.N) $1.3 billion for an interest in shale gas
resources in Texas and Louisiana. [ID:nLU618520]
The companies said each would own 50 percent of a venture
to which EXCO is contributing 120,000 acres of land in the
Haynesville shale gas area and associated gas infrastructure.
MAY 2009:
-- Talon Oil & Gas LLC bought 60 percent of Denbury
Resources Inc's (DNR.N) natural gas assets for $270 million.
-- Independent oil and gas company Quicksilver Resources
Inc (KWK.N) agreed a joint venture with Italian energy giant
Eni (ENI.MI) to develop its Barnett shale properties in Texas.
[ID:nBNG161361]
As part of the deal, Eni agreed to buy a 27.5 percent stake
in Quicksilver's Alliance leasehold interests in the Fort Worth
basin for $280 million.
MARCH 2009:
-- Independent Canadian oil exploration firm TriStar Oil &
Gas and Crescent Point Energy Trust agreed to buy Talisman
Energy Inc's lands in the prolific Bakken shale region of
Saskatchewan and Montana for C$720 million ($567 million).
TriStar was later acquired by Petrobank Energy and
Resources Ltd (PBG.TO), which combined its own conventional oil
assets with TriStar to create a new company called PetroBakken
Energy Ltd (PBN.TO).
(Reporting by Jeanine Prezioso; Editing by David Gregorio)