Shale oil & gas

Algeria’s Sonatrach plans $70 billion investment to explore shale gas

January 12, 2015 | Algeria, Shale oil & gas

Algiers, Algeria | – Algeria’s state-owned energy giant Sonatrach plans to invest at least $70 billion over the next 20 years to exploit shale gas in the southern desert, its managing director Said Sahnoun said on Sunday. Sonatrach intends to moves ahead with the plan despite protest against shale gas drilling in In Salah in Tamanrasset province. The company hopes to produce some 20 billion cubic meters (700 billion cubic feet) of shale gas per year from 200 drill sites, Sahnoun told state radio, according …

Chevron pulls out of Ukraine’s $10 billion shale gas deal

December 16, 2014 | Eastern Europe & Russia, Shale oil & gas

Kiev, Ukraine | – U.S. multinational energy major Chevron plans to withdraw from a $10 billion shale gas deal with Kiev, a senior Ukrainian presidential official said on Monday. Ukraine signed a shale gas production-sharing agreement with Chevron amid great fanfare in November 2013, just months before mass protests in Kiev ousted former president Viktor Yanukovich, plunging the country into a major crisis with Russia. “There is information that they (Chevron) are planning this decision,” Valeriy Chaliy told journalists, referring to a report by local …

Algeria plans to start shale gas production in 2022

October 14, 2014 | Algeria, Shale oil & gas

Oran, Algeria |  –  Algeria plans to begin production of shale gas in 2022, says Said Sahnoune, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the state-owned oil and gas corporation, Sonatrach. He said in a media statement on the sidelines of the International Conference on the Algerian Gas Industry now underway in this western city that “Algeria may start producing shale gas in 2022, if the drawn-up plan could be executed under the right conditions”. “By 2025, we could also achieve a production level of about …

South African anti-fracking group threatens legal challenge

July 23, 2014 | Fracking, Shale oil & gas, South Africa

Johannesburg, South Africa | – A South African anti-fracking group threatened a legal challenge on Tuesday to government plans to grant shale gas exploration licences in the pristine semi-desert of the Karoo, saying the regulatory process had been marked by “patent ineptitude”. In a February State of the Nation address, President Jacob Zuma described shale gas as a “game changer” for the economy and said Pretoria would allow hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, “within the framework of our good environmental laws”. The government had been expected …

S. Africa’s Sasol eyes Shell Karoo acreage

March 10, 2014 | Shale oil & gas, South Africa

Johannesburg, South Africa – South African petrochemicals group Sasol Ltd is keen to invest in a domestic shale industry once it gets off the ground, its chief executive said, in a potential challenge to oil major Royal Dutch Shell. South Africa’s cabinet proposed new regulations to govern exploration for shale gas late last year after it lifted a 2012 moratorium on the activity in the central Karoo region. Fracking in the region might tap what is believed to be some of the world’s biggest reserves of the …

South African pension fund keen to invest in local shale gas

February 25, 2014 | Shale oil & gas, South Africa

Johannesburg, South Africa – South Africa’s Public Investment Corporation (PIC) is keen to invest in a domestic shale gas industry once it gets underway, its chief investment officer said on Monday. The intention to invest in shale gas by the PIC, which manages 1.4 trillion rand ($128 billion) of South African public employee retirement funds, is the latest signal of the government’s commitment to developing a potential new supply of energy for Africa’s largest economy. “Shale will be a game changer here and we will …

South Africa’s Sasol has new partner in Canadian shale venture

December 17, 2013 | Shale oil & gas, United States & Canada

London – South Africa’s petrochemical giant, Sasol has a new partner in its Montney Basin shale gas venture in Canada. Progress Energy Canada last month agreed to buy part of Talisman Energy’s acreage in the project, located in northeast British Columbia, for CDN$1.5bn. Talisman had earlier indicated it would not go ahead with the project. Sasol CEO David Constable said in an interview in September that this was not a blow for Sasol as Talisman’s decision was a strategic one and was not based on …

Saudi Arabia to join US as shale gas producer

October 14, 2013 | Asia, Company Operations, Shale oil & gas

Daegu, South Korea, (Reuters) – OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia is preparing to be among the first countries outside North America to use shale gas for power generation and thereby save more of its crude oil for lucrative exports. Inspired by a shale gas boom in the United States, which has transformed the country from the world’s largest gas importer to a budding exporter, Riyadh plans to take its first steps to commercialise its own large unconventional deposits. “We are ready to start producing our own …