Southwestern May Seek New Brunswick, Brown Dense Joint Ventures

Southwestern Energy Co. (SWN), which pioneered natural-gas development from Arkansas’ Fayetteville Shale, may enter into joint ventures next year for its New Brunswick acreage in Canada and Brown Dense holdings in the U.S.

Joint ventures in the oil and gas business can be used to fund projects or share risk, Southwestern Chief Executive Officer Steve Mueller said in an interview at a Capital One Southcoast energy conference in New Orleans yesterday.

“We’ve got projects that fall into both of those categories, whether it’s a really high wildcat project in New Brunswick where we have 2.5 million acres, or if it’s just trying to figure out if the Brown Dense works,” Mueller said.

The Houston-based company may seek transactions on New Brunswick and Brown Dense properties that include selling a piece of the holdings or creating a structure that involves a percentage of wells or acreage, Mueller said.

Southwestern had more than 500,000 net acres in the Brown Dense formation in Louisiana and Arkansas as of a November company presentation.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edward Klump in Houston at eklump@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan Warren at susanwarren@bloomberg.net