Exxon Mobil (XOM) New Shale-Gas Find Looks Gigantic

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Tim Cejka, Exxon Mobil's (NYSE: XOM) head of global exploration, said XOM has been bullish on shale-gas exploration since 2003, locating promising gas-bearing rock formations and then snapping up leases on them.

The Journal reported that Exxon is encouraged by the exploration of 250,000 acres it has leased in the Horn River Basin, in northern British Columbia. Cejka said results from the first four wells lead the company to conclude that each well will produce between 16 million and 18 million cubic feet of gas a day.

That's actually five times the size of average wells in Texas's Barnett shale and comparable to big wells in Louisiana's Haynesville shale, which are two major shale-gas fields that already have moved the U.S. natural-gas market from "scarcity to abundance."

Exxon is interested in shale projects because the amount of gas trapped in shales is enormous. Exxon has also leases in prospective shale-gas formations in Germany, Hungary and Poland, and is still adding acreage.

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