2.17.10 Japanese firm invests $1.4 billion in PA’s Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling

Reports the Philadelphia Inquirer:

In the latest signal that global money is flowing into Pennsylvania’s natural-gas fields, Japanese giant Mitsui & Co. is investing $1.4 billion in Marcellus Shale gas drilling – and may sink in billions more in the next decade.

Mitsui yesterday agreed to buy a 32.5 percent stake in the Marcellus Shale natural-gas operations of Anadarko Petroleum Corp., the Houston global energy firm that has interests in 712,000 acres in seven Pennsylvania counties. Anadarko is the largest leaseholder in Pennsylvania state forests, with 128,000 acres.

The Mitsui investment will fund all Anadarko’s development costs in 2010, and 90 percent of its remaining costs through 2013. Mitsui also has an option to buy a 32.5 percent share of Anadarko’s existing wells and to fund additional acreage acquisitions.

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