Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS-A, RDSA.L, RDS-B, RDSB.L) has agreed to buy East Resources Inc., a privately-held U.S. natural-gas explorer, for $4.7 billion in cash, the company said Friday. The British oil giant has agreed to buy the subsidiaries, which own the business of Pennsylvania-based East Resources, from East Resources, its private equity investor, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and its advisors Jefferies & Co.
The deal was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which said East Resources Chief Executive Officer Terrence Pegula, who founded the company in 1983, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., which invested $350 million in the company just 11 months ago, would make substantial returns on their investments.
East Resources has its primary activity focused on the Marcellus shale, in the northeastern U.S. According to Shell, the business being acquired has some 650,000 net acres of contiguous, operated acreage in the Marcellus, and 1.05 million net acres of acreage overall. East Resources has about 60 mmscfe per day of production, predominantly in natural gas, and has a substantial medium-term growth potential.
Although natural gas prices are not encouraging at the moment, demand is expected to increase and gas producers are increasingly focusing on shale formations to unlock fuel deposits. Shell acquired around 250,000 net acres of mineral rights in the Eagle Ford shale play, in South Texas, this year. These undeveloped acreage positions are in the liquids rich window of the Eagle Ford play. Shell will be the operator in this acreage, and will be able to integrate the new assets into its existing South Texas operations.
All together in 2010, Shell has added some 1.3 million acres of North America tight gas acreage. According to the company, these new positions have the potential to yield over 16 trillion cubic feet of gas equivalent of resources.
Peter Voser, Chief Executive Officer of Shell, said, "We are enhancing our world-wide Upstream portfolio for profitable growth, through exploration and focused acquisitions, and through divestment of non-core positions. These acreage additions form part of an on-going strategy, which also includes divestments, with an objective to grow and to upgrade the quality of Shell's North America tight gas portfolio."
Voser added, ''The opportunity now is to consolidate our tight gas portfolio, divest from non-core positions across North America, and to invest for profitable growth, by deploying Shell's technology and capabilities on a large scale."
Late last month, India's Reliance Industries invested about $1.7 billion for a 40% stake in a Marcellus shale joint venture transaction with Atlas Energy, Inc.(ATLS).
In February, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC), a developer of oil and natural gas resources, announced an agreement with Mitsui E&P USA LLC, an affiliate of Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (MITSY), for a joint venture on Anadarko's Marcellus shale assets for about $1.4 billion.
RDSA.L closed Thursday's regular trade at 1,815.50 pence, up 49.50 pence or 2.80%, on 4.60 million shares.
RDS-A settled at $52.88, down from the prior close of $54.06, on 2.33 million shares.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.