You sure can give them credit for being in the right place. Just...

You sure can give them credit for being in the right place. Just need results!

Veeone, you can also add this to the list of "not the only ones looking for a piece of the action".

BHP TO SPEND $US4.5BN ON SHALE GAS IN US
By AAP | 14.11.2011 09:07 PM
Resources giant BHP Billiton says it will spend $US4.5 billion this financial year ramping up shale gas production in the United States.

BHP Billiton petroleum division chief executive J Michael Yeager also on Monday said the miner sought to acquire more land in the Permian Basin, Texas, where it had already acquired ground through the recent Petrohawk Energy takeover.

While that deal was aimed at securing shale gas assets, the Permian Basin is mainly prospective for oil.

Mr Yeager told a teleconference on Monday that the company would spend about $US4.5 billion ($A4.37 billion) on onshore shale gas projects in the US this financial year.

It would spend almost $US6 billion ($A5.82 billion) in 2014/15 and a further $US6.5 billion ($A6.31 billion) in 2019/20.

The company has this year spent almost $US20 billion ($A19.42 billion) on two major acquisitions in the booming US shale gas market, buying Petrohawk in August and Chesapeake Energy Corp's interest in the Fayetteville shale field in Arkansas in February.

This financial year, the company is targeting shale gas production from onshore US assets of 250 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (Mboe/d) or about 90 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe). Output is forecast at more than a million barrels a day in 2019/20.

The forecasts exclude its Permian Basin assets in Texas near the New Mexico border, which BHP Billiton acquired through the Petrohawk deal and where the company is trying to secure more ground.

"We are bidding ... new acreage in the Permian Basin every day," Mr Yeager said.
"There's still acreage to be had here."

Mr Yeager said BHP Billiton was very optimistic about prospects in this area, where it was already a major landholder.

"The opportunities here are completely unappraised," he said.
"I don't even know enough right now to tell you, but what I can tell you is it's the hottest place in the US right now."

He said a high number of rigs - 486 - were working in the Permian Basin currently, but Petrohawk had only drilled seven wells.

"This is nothing but oil and it's stacked reservoirs one on top of the other," Mr Yeager said.

http://www.thebull.com.au/articles/a/24273-bhp-to-spend-$us4.5bn-on-shale-gas-in-us.html