Mitsui Partners with Marathon to Enter Polish Shales

Mitsui & Co will acquire a stake in concessions held by Marathon Oil in Poland's Paleozoic shale play

The Japanese trading giant will take a 9 percent stake pending approval from Poland's government,

Marathon, the operator, will reduce its stake to 51 percent.  Marathon entered into an arrangement in April 2011 with Nexen Inc., for the Canadian based company acquire a 40 percent working interest in the concessions.

The ten concessions, encompassing 2.1 million acres (850,000 hectares), are located in a band spanning from north Poland to its eastern border.

"Poland is considered to be one of the most attractive shale gas potential areas in Europe, where the development of shale gas by the major oil and gas companies is expected to accelerate," Mitsui said.

"We are conducting shale gas development and production activities in the Marcellus Shale, Pa.," Mitsui said. "With our experience and knowledge acquired from this project, we intend to expand our presence in the European gas market, which follows the U.S. gas market."

Marathon has said it plans to conduct seismic surveys on its Polish lands and possibly drill up to two wells this year. As many as eight are planned for 2012.

Mitsui is the first Japanese company to enter into a European shale gas project.