Flight of Big Oil From Australia Draws Investors to Sixth Largest Shale Oil Reserves

摘要

Aubrey McClendon, the wildcatter who pioneered the U.S. shale revolution by going where big oil companies wouldn't, is at it again. This time in Australia. Emboldened by the exodus of producers such as Chevron Corp. and Statoil ASA from Australian shale, McClendon and private-equity investor John Raymond are pouncing amid the rout in global crude prices and a dearth of other ready investors, Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, said Aug. 24. Australia is home to the world's sixth-largest shale oil reserves and seventh-biggest tranche of shale gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. "The big boys left town and that left an opening for the likes of McClendon and Raymond," Gheit said in a telephone interview. The major oil companies "left a vacuum and these guys are ready to go against the grain and fill it. It's what they do."