In a recent statement, Helge Lund – the CEO of Statoil ASA – said that Europe’s second-ranking gas exporter will largely use the strategy that it adopts in Europe, for building up its in the Marcellus Shale formations in the eastern US.

Statoil, whose Europe portfolio boasts production assets, processing facilities, pipelines and storage capacity, has now focused its attention on the natural-gas reserve lying underneath parts of three US states - New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Lund said that Statoil has a gas trading unit in Stamford, Connecticut, and two positions in a pipeline network.

Revealing Statoil’s strategy for the US, Lund said in a recent interview Hammerfest, Norway: “What’s most important when developing a gas position is to have upstream projects and good assets. We’ve done that in Europe for a long time and especially in Norway, and now we’re working on that at Marcellus.”

In addition to the 600,000 acres that Statoil acquired via a deal with Chesapeake Energy Corp. in 2008, the company acquired another 59,000 net acres at Marcellus Shale in March this year.

Furthermore, in May, Statoil inked an agreement with National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. for the delivery of gas from the US to Canada; with a deal already in place in March for the transportation and delivery of gas from Northern Marcellus to New Jersey and New York.