United Energy acquires US natural gas assets
US-based United Energy (UE) said August 2 it acquired more than 240,000 acres of oil and gas leases, over 2,400 wells and nearly 2,000 km of gas pipelines in Oklahoma and Kansas as part of a shift towards natural gas.
UE, headquartered in Texas, has spent the past 12 months divesting weaker-performing, non-core assets and marginal oilfields, it said. The company is now shifting its attention to natural gas.
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"This investment represents a key step in UE's effort to invest heavily in cleaner, more abundant and reliable forms of energy like natural gas," the company said. Citing a climb in gas prices to $4/'000 ft3 on July 23, United's COO Rick Coody said the timing of the acquisition was ideal.
Elsewhere, UE said it had acquired a minority stake in a planned oil and refined fuels storage facility in Louisiana. Slated to break ground next year, the terminal could have an initial storage capacity of 6.8mn barrels of oil. Neither the sales terms nor the identities of the buyers were disclosed for either transaction.
"We haven't seen this level of excitement in the energy industry in a long time," UE CEO Brian Guinn commented. "Going forward, our energy assets will be diversified under three main categories: exploration and production, technology, and oil and fuel storage."