By The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Oil and natural gas producer Newfield Exploration Co. on Wednesday signed an agreement with oil and gas company Hess Corp. to jointly explore 140,000 gross acres of the Marcellus Shale play in Pennsylvania.
Each company will hold a 50 percent stake in the properties.
Newfield said it will fund its 2009 portion of Marcellus Shale activities with the company's existent $1.45 billion capital budget. Drilling operations are not expected to begin until 2010.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The company said terms of the transaction depend on Newfield and Hess completing additional agreements over the next few weeks.
Shares of Newfield rose $1.15, or 2.5 percent, to $47.78. Earlier, shares reached a new 52-week high of $48.68. Hess shares climbed 87 percent to $59.25.
