After the 41 billion business deal, Makó is back?
http://www.delmagyar.hu/mako_hirek/41_milliardos_uzlet_utan_ismet_mako/2135876/
Bakos Andrew 2010.01.14. 10:35
Makó - 41 billion dollars. That is how much ExxonMobil paid for gas explorer XTO Energy. That is how much the company with unconventional technology and engineering experience is worth. The press media is back again into the guessing game: Is Exxon returning to Makó? The giant is silent; they have until the end of February to reveal their intention in the Makó trough.
The joint venture agreement for gas extraction in the Makó trough signed by Falcon, ExxonMobil and MOL still in effect. Although, ExxonMobil just recently in a spectacular fashion has moved off the Óföldeák site, because of the unexpected results after having spent $75 million on research, however despite all that they did not break up the consortium. The business partners have until the end of February to decide how to proceed. However in the backlight of this, the interesting news is that ExxonMobil has bought XTO Energy for $41 billion, the company has large gas reserves, however it has also an even greater asset in the form of a professional expertise in the unconventional exploration field, and posses very sophisticated engineering personnel. ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson said that the unconventional expertise gained from this deal will be utilized worldwide, including in Hungary. Based on this, the Napi Gazdaság and the Origó published an assumption that ExxonMobil is returning to the Makó trough. According to some experts, this is quite a brave assumption. However, back in time, the same thing could have been said about the use of new technology in the Makó trough.
György Szabó Falcon’s Hungarian leader said that the economic interests of secretive companies are not the only reason for the uncertainty. The fact is that the methods for the exploration of the unconventional fields are still in the developing stage; that is why so expensive to acquire the application of the successful technology and application. For comparison: in the 60's and 70's we thought the required knowledge of physics for the nuclear fusion technology would be in general use by the turn of the century, however, today it still looks just as far away as it did 30 years ago - said György Szabó. Not us, it is ExxonMobil predicting that by 2015, the unconventional gas explorations will accelerate to very high speed, but it cannot completely taken for granted.
Szabó also stressed that, whatever decision shows up at the end of February, Falcon is ready with or without ExxonMobil to continue the research in the Makó trough.
