MOSCOW (MRC) -- Total, Europe’s third-largest oil company, has acquired a 40% interest in two shale gas exploration licenses in the UK for an undisclosed amount, the French energy firm said on Monday.
"The interests are in Petroleum Exploration & Development Licenses 139 and 140 in the Gainsborough Trough area of the East Midlands region of the UK," Total said in a statement.
The region covers an area of 240 square kilometres, it said.
The acquisition marks the French oil and gas firm’s first entry into shale gas exploration in the UK, while the company is already involved in shale gas projects in the US, Argentina, China, Australia, Poland and Denmark.
Total’s partners in the UK shale gas project will be GP Energy Ltd, a subsidiary of Dart Energy Europe (17.5%); Ogden Resources UK (14.5%); Island Gas Ltd (IGas) (14.50%) and eCorp Oil & Gas UK (13.5%).
"IGas will be the operator of the initial exploration programme, with Total subsequently taking over operatorship as the project moves towards development," Total said.
As MRC wrote before, Total intends to invest EUR160m before 2016 to adapt its petrochemical platform in Carling, in the Lorraine region of eastern France. Thus, Total plans to develop new activities on the platform in the growing markets for hydrocarbon resins (Cray Valley) and for polymers, while shutting down the acutely loss-making steam cracker in the second half of 2015.
Total S.A. is a French multinational oil and gas company and one of the six "Supermajor" oil companies in the world with business in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. The company's petrochemical products cover two main groups: base chemicals and the consumer polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene) that are derived from them.
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