On Thursday evening Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) declared that it will acquire a 60 percent interest in the Marcellus Shale acreage in Central and Northeast Pennsylvania with total consideration money of $392 million. It is a Marcellus Shale joint venture by the Reliance Marcellus II, LLC, a subsidiary of RIL, and U. S. based Carrizo Oil and Gas.

Through this transaction, Reliance will get 100 percent of Avista's interest and 20 percent interests from Carrizo. Thus, after the transaction is over, Reliance and Carrizo will get 60 percent and 40 percent of the interests respectively from the newly formed joint venture.

The Marcellus Shale acreage is to have a total of 104,400 acres of undeveloped leasehold in the main area of the Marcellus Shale in the Central and Northeast of Pennsylvania.

Thus Reliance's 60 percent interest will amount to around 62,600 net acres. It is anticipated that this acreage will support the drilling of around a thousand wells over the next decade, having a total resource potential equivalent to
3.4 trillion cubic feet.

The transaction is expected to be closed within mid-September of the current year.