BP Consolidates Leading Position in Shale Business    

On September 2nd, BP America announced BP will acquire a 25% interest in Chesapeake's Fayetteville Shale assets in Arkansas for US$1.9 billion. The assets have current daily net production of approximately 180 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent and include approximately 540 000 net acres of leasehold which the companies believe could support the drilling of up to 6 700 future horizontal wells.  As a result of the transaction, BP will own approximately 135 000 net acres of this leasehold and Chesapeake Energy will own approximately 405 000 net acres.
    This July, BP announced to acquire Arkoma Basin Woodford Shale assets in Oklahoma for US$1.75 billion.
    This transaction, when combined with the Woodford acquisition, establishes a material position in the two attractive shale plays in the Arkoma Basin. Together with the emerging Haynesville Shale play in East Texas, BP has made a strategic entry into three top tier shale plays in North America and established potential shale resources of one billion barrels oil equivalent net to BP.