Shale Gas News and Information

Exxon and XTO and shale

Exxon announced a buyout of XTO today, and Exxon's wish to access more shale technology was a big part of that.

In one of the largest deals of the year, Exxon Mobil is acquiring XTO Energy Inc., a large supplier of natural gas, for $31 billion of stock. The deal represents Exxon’s strategy to diversify way from oil and into natural gas, which is considered a cleaner fuel. The deal could presage other acquisitions by big energy companies of U.S. natural gas suppliers.

“XTO is a leading U.S. unconventional natural gas producer, with an
outstanding resource base, strong technical expertise and highly skilled
employees. XTO’s strengths, together with ExxonMobil’s advanced R&D and
operational capabilities, global scale and financial capacity, should enable
development of additional supplies of unconventional oil and gas resources,
benefiting consumers both here in the United States and around the world.

We've been waiting a while for the oil majors to take advantage of low gas prices to buy into the shale secret sauce that they missed the boat on first time around, although judging by Exxon, Chevron and ConocoPhllips interest in European shale in Germany and Poland, they aren't repeating the mistake.  Will this mean another round of M+A activity?  Probably