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Permalink Reply by John Denison on May 6, 2020 at 8:37

Castleton's acquisition of SWEPI Haynesville assets was announced in late December 2019. 

From the Houston Chronicle Dec. 31:

Shell sells last of its Haynesville position

Royal Dutch Shell is officially moving out of the gassy Haynesville shale after selling its last package of acreage to a private Houston firm.

Houston-based Castleton Resources, which primarily focuses on the Haynesville in East Texas and Louisiana, will scoop up about 55,000 net acres from Shell that's currently producing more than 100,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day. The companies are not revealing the sale price.

Shell previously sold most of its Haynesville position five years ago, but still had some piecemeal remaining acreage.

"The divestment is part of Shell’s ongoing strategy to optimize its shale portfolio and direct capital toward developing our high-margin assets located in the Permian, as well as in Canada and Argentina," a Shell spokesman said in a prepared statement.

The deal increases Castleton's Haynesville scale by about 40 percent. Castleton was founded three years ago when its private investment sponsor, Castleton Commodities International, bought a sizable Haynesville position from Anadarko Petroleum.

Tokyo Gas acquired a 30 percent stake in Castleton Resources two years ago and, through a new injection of capital with this deal, Tokyo Gas' ownership of Castleton will rise to 46 percent.

Tokyo Gas is interested in acquiring more shale gas for sale on global liquefied natural gas markets, including in Japan.

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Permalink Reply by full name on May 6, 2020 at 9:31

Skip,

Thanks for the reply.  Maybe Castleton's royalty prices will match EXCO and GEP.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on May 6, 2020 at 10:21

LOL!  I think your need to thank John, full name.  I do think the article John posted gets a little something wrong about the asset sale.  RDS sold all of it's SWEPI operated Haynesville acreage to Vine back in 2014.  What was sold to Castleton was the 50% interest in EXCO operated LA Haynesville units that Shell acquired, unintentionally, when the company acquired British Gas (BG).  Shell never operated that interest and only started paying their 50% of royalty after EXCO got in financial trouble and headed to bankruptcy.  I think the speculation contained in the article is correct that it was Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. that was interested in acquiring the reserves.

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Permalink Reply by John Denison on May 6, 2020 at 11:04

I appreciate the "rest of the story" from an industry veteran, Skip. 

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Permalink Reply by full name on May 6, 2020 at 13:36

Hi John,

Sorry about that.

Skip usually first out of the box and I did not look at the name. 

So  a belated thanks John.

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Permalink Reply by Skip Peel - Mineral Consultant on May 6, 2020 at 13:42

LOL!  I resemble that remark.

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