South African alternative fuels and chemicals company Sasol is to acquire a 50% stake in Talisman Energy’s Cypress A shale gas asset in the Montney basin of British Columbia, Canada, for C$1.05bn ($1.08bn).
The Cypress A asset includes 230km² of land and represents an estimated contingent resource of 11.2 trillion cubic feet.
The asset shows thick productive shale formations and is located close to the Farrell Creek asset, which was acquired by Sasol in December 2010.
Sasol and Talisman have agreed to conduct a feasibility study on the economic viability of a facility in western Canada to convert natural gas to liquid fuels using Sasol’s gas-to-liquid (GTL) technology.
The latest acquisition of the Cypress A asset, with the Farrell Creek acquisition, could allow Sasol to scale up the GTL facility.
The transaction is expected to complete in the third quarter of 2011.
