In less than 24 hours EXCO Resources Inc. announced two transactions worth close to $700 million to sell some natural gas-weighted properties in Oklahoma, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Late Wednesday the Dallas-based producer agreed to sell to Sheridan Holding Co. I LLC all of its producing assets in Oklahoma for $540 million. A day earlier EXCO agreed to sell some properties in Ohio and Pennsylvania for a total of $145 million.

At the end of 2008 the properties to be sold to Sheridan had estimated proved reserves of 4.8 million boe, which included 223.7 Bcf of natural gas, EXCO said. Current net production includes 39.1 MMcf/d and 919 b/d of oil, or 44.6 MMcfe/d.

The sales agreement for the Ohio and Pennsylvania assets is with EV Energy Partners LP and some institutional partnerships managed by EnerVest Ltd. At year-end 2008 the properties had estimated proved reserves of 121.9 Bcfe, or 110.4 Bcf of natural gas and 1.9 million bbl of oil. Current net production includes 12.8 MMcf/d and 258 b/d, or 14.4 MMcfe/d.

Together the sales complete EXCO’s 2009 plan to divest some of its nonstrategic assets, said CEO Douglas H. Miller. “We have now reached agreement on over $1.1 billion of such asset sales. Including our previously announced joint venture and after all closings of these asset sale transactions, we will have reduced debt by $2.0 billion.”

The sales are expected to be completed in November. The Sheridan sale has an effective date of Oct. 1, 2009, and the EV Energy/EnerVest sale has an effective date of Sept. 1, 2009.

In August EXCO collected almost $1 billion after it completed a joint venture transaction with BG Group plc (see Daily GPI, Aug. 17). Under terms of the partnership, the two companies will jointly develop and operate a Haynesville Shale leasehold and some gas assets in East Texas and North Louisiana. The partners also plan to develop and operate midstream assets in the region.

Also last month EXCO completed the sale to an affiliate of Encore Acquisition Co. of its Norge Marchand Unit in Grady County, OK, and various assets, along with its Gladewater Field and Overton Field assets in Texas, for more than $356 million (see Daily GPI, June 30).

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