A large Japanese consortium lead by Inpex Corporation has agreed to buy  a 40 per cent stake in shale gas assets owned by Calgary-based Nexen, an energy exploration company.

A Nexen news release calls the deal "a strategic partnership."  The deal is worth $700 million and covers the development of shale gas deposits in the Horn River, Cordova and Liard basins in northeast BC

Inpex is a partner with Shell in an Indonesian liquified natural gas project. Shell recently purchased the old Methanex site and marine terminal in Kitimat.

Nexen will continue to manage operations at the deposits.
 

The news release quotes Marvin Romanow, Nexen's President and Chief Executive Officer, as saying :"This joint venture represents a significant milestone in the advancement of our shale gas strategy and the premium over our invested cost shows the value we have created in a short time. The transaction provides us with world-class partners that have significant upstream and LNG expertise. It also recognizes the outstanding team we have put in place and the execution excellence they have consistently demonstrated."

The Nexen release goes on to say:

Inpex currently conducts 71 oil and gas projects in 26 countries, making them Japan's largest oil and gas exploration and production company. They are engaged in exploration, development and production activities around the globe with production of over 400,000 boe/d and have the largest oil and gas reserves and production volume of any Japanese E&P company.

Inpex brings significant LNG expertise and market access to the partnership. They own interests in large LNG projects including resource in both Indonesia and Australia and are building a regasification terminal in Japan. Inpex holds a 76% working interest in the Ichthys LNG project offshore Australia and is the operator. The project is expected to deliver LNG production volumes of 8.4 million tonnes per year. Inpex holds a 60% working interest in the Abadi LNG project offshore eastern Indonesia and is the operator (in July 2011, Inpex signed an agreement with Shell for transfer of a 30% participating interest. This transaction is subject to certain conditions). The project is expected to deliver LNG production volumes of 2.5 million tonnes per year. The production volume from these two projects is equivalent to 15% or more of Japan's current LNG annual import volumes.