Statoil Plan US Upstream Acquisitions

Statoil plans to build up its presence in the Marcellus Shale formations in the eastern US along the same lines as its European business.

Statoil chief executive Helge Lund told Bloomberg that when developing a gas position, it is important to have upstream projects and good assets.

“We’ve done that in Europe for a long time, especially in Norway, and now we’re working on that at Marcellus,” Lund said.

In Europe, Statoil developed a portfolio of production assets, processing facilities, pipelines and storage capacity and now in the US its aims for natural-gas reserves in New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

In March 2010, Statoil added 59,000 net acres at Marcellus Shale to the 600,000 acres acquired through from Chesapeake Energy in 2008.

In May 2010, the firm signed an agreement with National Fuel Gas Supply to deliver gas from the US to Canada and in March 2010 to transport and deliver gas from Northern Marcellus to New Jersey and New York.