Picojoule

So why does an oil industry major sell working gas wells? Shell Plans to Sell Stake in Eagle Ford Shale - WSJ The explanation tossed out is that Shell and other majors came late into the game, overpaying for assets. Okay. This would explain a decision to sell acreage. But selling working wells indicates that the money flowing from these wells is not good enough to make owing them worthwhile for Shell. (Indeed, the original WSJ report reported "the assets weren’t meeting the company’s profit targets") Can the smaller buyer (with less overhead, perhaps) can deal with a lower margin? We'll see. A month ago, after reports of write downs of shale assets by many companies, it was suggested that The companies are turning instead to developing current projects, unable to justify buying more property while fields bought during the 2009-2012 flurry remain below their purchase price, according to analysts. As Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. was quot...