Reliance Industries (RIL) and its US partner Atlas Energy have acquired 42,344 acre of acreage in Marcellus shale for about $192 million (approx Rs 854.4 crore) to enhance their portfolio of area they propose to explore for extracting gas from sedimentary rocks.

With the new acquisition, the two partners now have 3,43,000 acre that could hold enough natural gas to satisfy US demand for a decade. Atlas is likely to drill over 450 horizontal wells on the latest acquired acreage as it intends to develop a large percentage of the acreage in the next five years.

RIL through its subsidiary Reliance Marcellus on 9 April 2010 signed an agreement to form a JV with US based Atlas Energy. The deal is valued at $1.7 billion (approx Rs 7,565 crore). Under the JV agreement, RIL has acquired 40 per cent in Atlas' Marcellus Shale acreage position in southwestern Pennsylvania for $339 million (approx Rs 1,508.55 crore). Along with this, it is likely to fund $1.36 billion (approx Rs 6,052 crore) of capital under a carry arrangement for 75 per cent of Atlas' capital costs over a seven-and-a-half year development programme.

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RIL may discover hydrocarbon in Cauvery region (8-March-10)