Pioneer Natural Resources Co. said Thursday that it has closed on its previously announced acquisition of assets in two of its U.S. onshore core areas, the Permian Basin and South Texas, for a combined purchase price of $177 million (see Daily GPI, June 29).

The Permian Basin assets were purchased from an affiliate of Occidental Petroleum Corp., which recently acquired these assets in a larger transaction from an affiliate of Exxon Mobil Corp. (see Daily GPI, May 23). The South Texas assets were acquired from an undisclosed seller.

Pioneer said these purchases add 70 million barrels of substantially undeveloped proved oil equivalent reserves with daily production of 1,800 Boe and an estimated 800 undrilled locations. The company said it expects to accelerate the pace of drilling in each of these low-risk core areas beginning later this year and anticipates that production from the acquired assets could exceed 10,000 Boe/d upon full development of the proved reserves.

Headquartered in Dallas, Pioneer is a large independent oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States, Argentina, Canada, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa and Tunisia.

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