Chevron to buy new stakes in Marcellus shale

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chevron Corp <CVX.N> will buy 228,000 acres in the Marcellus Shale, expanding its position in the one of the hottest natural gas shale fields under development in the United States.

Terms of purchase of the acreage from Chief Oil & Gas and Tug Hill Inc were not disclosed, although previous deals in the most lucrative areas of the field have been completed at around $14,000 per acre.

The purchase of the land in the southwestern part of Pennsylvania will give Chevron an estimated 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, the company said.

The Marcellus shale, which stretches from West Virginia and Ohio across Pennsylvania and into New York, is one of the biggest natural gas finds in the United States in decades, but the hydraulic fracturing drilling used to tap into the vast quantities the fuel that is locked in the shale rock there has prompted environmental concerns in the region.

Earlier this year, Chevron bought Atlas Energy for about $3.2 billion, giving the company its first major stake in the field.

(Reporting by Matt Daily; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)