Southwestern Energy Co. on Tuesday closed the sale of its Mid-continent oil and gas properties in Oklahoma for $26.9 million. The non-strategic assets were sold to an unnamed private company.

Located predominantly in the Sho-Vel-Tums area of southern Oklahoma, the Anadarko Basin in western Oklahoma and the Sooner Trend of northwest Oklahoma, the properties’ total proved reserves were estimated at 33 Bcfe, of which 24.7 Bcfe was classified as proved developed producing. The properties included more than 700 oil and gas wells that were producing approximately 6.5 MMcfe/d net to Southwestern’s interest. The effective date of the sale was Oct. 1, 2002.

“The sale of these non-core assets allows us to focus our efforts on areas where we can create the most value for our shareholders,” said CEO Harold Korell. “We continue to focus on discounted value added per dollar invested and believe that the combination of our activities in the Arkoma Basin, East Texas and South Louisiana will yield positive results.”

At the recent RBC Capital Markets’ energy conference in Houston, Southwestern announced it has allocated $10 million to an infill drilling program in East Texas (see Daily GPI, Nov. 14). Korell said that the company is now finalizing next year’s budget, but it may not be completed before February because of some low-risk drilling prospects. Spending is expected to be close to this year’s budget of $88 million.

Southwestern, which is headquartered in Houston, is primarily focused on natural gas and is engaged in oil and gas exploration and production, natural gas gathering, transmission and marketing, and natural gas distribution.

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