Marubeni to Buy Stake in US Shale Oil Project

Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp said it would spend $1.3 billion on a 35 percent stake in a Texas-based shale oil and gas project from Texas firm Hunt Oil Co and on developing the field, making it the biggest shale oil reserve holder in Japan.

The project, located in the Eagle Ford Shale area, started commercial production in October 2010 and is expected to reach peak output in about five years, with Marubeni's share worth more than 10,000 barrels per day of oil equivalent, a company spokesman said.

About 80-85 percent of output is crude, and plans call for marketing it in the United States, he said.

After decades of building oil and gas production to help meet demand from Japan, the world's third-biggest oil consumer and the world's No.1 LNG user, the country's trading houses have been pursuing non-traditional reserves such as shale gas to source new projects as easy-to-find resources become scarce.

All five major trading houses have invested in shale oil and gas projects in North America, spending a total of more than $13 billion, since Sumitomo became the first Japanese firm to take part in a shale gas developmentin 2009.