Statoil, Talisman Make Eagle Ford Purchase

Statoil STO, Norway's largest oil company, and Canada's Talisman Energy TLM said they will pay $1.33 billion to buy oil shale properties in the Eagle Ford Shale in south Texas. Statoil also will pay $180 million a 50% stake in Talisman's existing Eagle Ford holdings, Bloomberg News reported. Statoil will spend $843 million on both transactions while Talisman will spend $485 million. The two companies have an option to buy 22,000 additional Eagle Ford acres. Talisman said there are as many as 1,000 drilling sites and an estimated 800 million barrels of oil equivalent, about 50% of which will be condensate or natural gas liquids, on the acquired property, Bloomberg reported.