Shell makes US acquisitions

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has revealed it will be purchasing the subsidiaries that make up East Resources in an effort to expand its North America tight gas portfolio.

The transaction is worth $4.7 billion (£3.23 billion) and will see Shell take over some 650,000 net acres of "highly contiguous" acreage in Marcellus and a total of 1.05 million net acres overall.

Chief executive officer of the firm Peter Voser said the acquisitions are part of an "on-going strategy" to improve its upstream assets.

He noted the company's objective is to boost its value through increased exploration, divestment of non-core positions and "focused" buy-outs.

In total, the organisation has extended its tight gas acreage by 1.3 million acres throughout 2010, with estimates it will generate 16 trillion cubic feet of gas equivalents.

Shell recently completed its Eastern Petrochemicals Complex in Singapore, making it the biggest fully-integrated refinery of its kind that is owned by the natural resources specialist.