Kalnin Ventures to acquire Marcellus Shale acreage in US

Kalnin Ventures, through an affiliate of its BKV Oil and Gas Capital Partners fund, has signed an agreement to acquire assets in the north-east portion of the Marcellus Shale in the US.

The proposed transaction, valued at $105m, is the fund’s sixth acquisition in 30 months in the Marcellus Shale.

The acquisition comprises Warren’s entire north-east Marcellus position and has the potential of two additional payments of $3.75m each over the next two years.

Through the acquisition of the assets located in Pennsylvania’s Wyoming County, Kalnin will have operating cash flow from 35 producing wells.

In addition, the transaction provides scope for additional development in the supercore of the north-east Marcellus through another 23 proven and undeveloped (PUD) well locations in the lower Marcellus.

Kalnin Ventures managing director and co-founder Christopher Kalnin said: “This deal is perfectly synergistic with our previous deals in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania and allows us to integrate two separately operated fields into a single larger field that is more efficient and at scale.

“We continue to consolidate and expand our working interests in this region, as we believe in the long-term outlook for gas, especially in the conjunction with growth in renewable.”

The acquisition, which has estimated total 1P reserves of 292 billion cubic feet, takes the fund’s acquisition tally up to $522m invested in the Marcellus to date.

Once the transaction is completed, the fund will hold operatorship of more than 115 producing wells and have interests in 330 gross wells in its portfolio.

The transactions will allow the fund to have projected net natural gas production of more than 200 million cubic feet per day.

The fund is financially backed by Thailand-based coal mining and power-generation company Banpu.