NorthAmOil: TotalEnergies boosts Eagle Ford gas holdings

France’s TotalEnergies announced on September 27 that it had agreed to buy a 45% interest in producing dry gas assets in the Eagle Ford shale in Southwest Texas, owned and operated by Lewis Energy Group.

The acquired assets have the potential to be developed to reach “sustainable” gross production of around 400,000 cubic feet (11,328 cubic metres) per day by 2028, the company said. It described the assets as “low-cost and long-plateau”.

This is the second acquisition that TotalEnergies has made from Lewis in the Eagle Ford this year. In April, the French company announced that it was buying Lewis’ 20% interest in the Dorado asset, operated by EOG Resources, which owns the remaining 80%. Both acquisitions involve non-operated, gas-focused assets.

This comes as TotalEnergies seeks to maintain its standing as a leading exporter of US LNG. Thanks to its 16.6% stake in the Cameron LNG plant, the company said it had exported over 10mn tonnes of the super-chilled fuel from the US in 2023. It anticipates that its US LNG export capacity will reach 15mn tonnes per year (tpy) by 2030.

Bolstering its US shale gas holdings appears to be part of TotalEnergies’ LNG ambitions.
“This acquisition further strengthens our upstream gas position in the United States and contributes to our integrated LNG position with a low-cost upstream gas supply,” stated TotalEnergies’ president of exploration and production, Nicolas Terraz, in reference to the latest deal. He went on to describe Lewis as a “well-renowned and highly efficient gas operator with an historical footprint in South Texas”.

The company also operates assets with technical production of around 500,000 cubic feet (14,160 cubic metres) per day in the Barnett shale, which is located in a different part of Texas.

In 2023, prior to the latest acquisitions, TotalEnergies’ net US gas output reached around 340,000 cubic feet (9,629 cubic metres) per day, or 450,000 cubic feet (12,744 cubic metres) per day of technical production.

If you’d like to read more about the key events shaping North America’s oil and gas sector then please click here for NewsBase’s North American Oil and Gas Monitor.