[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 145 (Wednesday, July 29, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Page 45234]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-18576]


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 DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Antitrust Division


Notice Pursuant to the National Cooperative Research and 
Production Act of 1993--Cooperative Research Group on Mechanical 
Stratigraphy and Natural Deformation in Eagle Ford Formation and 
Equivalent Boquillas Formation, South-Central and West Texas (Eagle 
Ford II)

    Notice is hereby given that, on July 1, 2015, pursuant to Section 
6(a) of the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, 
15 U.S.C. 4301 et seq. (``the Act''), Southwest Research Institute--
Cooperative Research Group on Mechanical Stratigraphy and Natural 
Deformation in Eagle Ford Formation and Equivalent Boquillas Formation, 
South-Central and West Texas (``Eagle Ford II'') has filed written 
notifications simultaneously with the Attorney General and the Federal 
Trade Commission disclosing (1) the identities of the parties to the 
venture and (2) the nature and objectives of the venture. The 
notifications were filed for the purpose of invoking the Act's 
provisions limiting the recovery of antitrust plaintiffs to actual 
damages under specified circumstances.
    Pursuant to Section 6(b) of the Act, the identities of the parties 
to the venture are: BHP Billiton Petroleum (Americas) Inc., Houston, 
TX; Murphy Exploration and Production Company, Houston, TX; 
ConocoPhillips Company, Houston, TX; Marathon Oil Company, Houston, TX; 
and Pioneer Natural Resources USA, Inc., Irving, TX. The general area 
of Eagle Ford II's planned activity is to examine the influence that 
mechanical stratigraphy exerts on natural and induced fracture systems 
in the oil and gas window of the Eagle Ford productive trend. Eagle 
Ford II will (i) expand the outcrop characterization; (ii) relate 
outcrop based results to the subsurface geology and geomechanics of the 
productive Eagle Ford trend; and (iii) perform numerical geomechanical 
modeling to understand the natural and induced hydraulic fracturing to 
validate and improve the modeling approach and to simulate a range of 
stratigraphic and stress conditions within the Eagle Ford productive 
trend and associated deformation features.

Patricia A. Brink,
Director of Civil Enforcement, Antitrust Division.
[FR Doc. 2015-18576 Filed 7-28-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE P