A regular theme on this blog has been the development of the shale gas industry. Now Indian major, Reliance Industries, has joined the party, investing a total of $1.36billion to acquire and develop a share in Texan shale gas assets.
Reliance has paid Pioneer Natural Resources some $236M for a 45% stake in the Eagle Ford shale assets in southern Texas for $236M and will further invest $1.052B to develop the fields over the next four years.
Back in April, Reliance invested $1.7B to create a venture with Atlas Energy, a deal which gave Reliance a 40% in the Marcellus shale fields in the USA.
This move again shows the growing importance of unconventional oil and gas to the IOCs and the petrochemical majors such as Reliance. With discoveries of conventional oil and gas reserves having peaked some time ago and with control firmly in the hands of the National Oil Companies, we can expect more and more activity in the development of unconventional resources. This will also increasingly shape the future of petrochemicals, now that the peak of investment in crackers based on conventional sources of feedstock appears to have passed.
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