Asset

Sanchez Energy Corp. is selling Eagle Ford Shale midstream assets to Sanchez Production Partners LP (SPP). The Houston-based company said proceeds will help prepare it for potential acquisitions as well as fund its drilling program.

An elevated level of asset impairments in the first three months of this year and increasing charges in the second quarter, combined with a bleak commodity price outlook, has put 2015 on track to suffer the most exploration and production (E&P) asset charges in 10 years or more, IHS Inc. energy analysts calculated.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., which scooped up two significant U.S.-based oil and natural gas operators earlier this year, now is looking at a range of options to reduce some of the debt that came with the buys, including asset sales, joint ventures or even a master limited partnership (MLP), CEO Richard C. Adkerson said Tuesday.

Australia’s Austin Exploration Ltd. has struck an agreement for Houston-based Halcon Resources Corp. to participate in its Birch Project in the northeastern Eagle Ford Shale. Halcon’s founders are Eagle Ford veterans, having pioneered the play with a previous company.

Post Oak Energy Capital and funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management have made a $100 million capital commitment to PetroEdge Energy III LLC, a newly formed oil and gas company based in Houston and focused on the Eagle Ford Shale.

Spectra Energy Corp.’s (SE) recent announcement that it would accelerate dropdowns to Spectra Energy Partners (SEP) did not placate activist investor Sandell Asset Management, which has called again for further action and threatened to seek changes to the company’s board.

Production of oil, natural gas and condensate continues trending upward in the Eagle Ford Shale, according to Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) data. During the first four months of this year, daily oil production surpassed that seen in 2012 and daily production of natural gas nearly met the 2012 level.

ConocoPhillips leaseholds in the Eagle Ford and Bakken shales, along with the Permian Basin, together boosted their year/year output by 42% in the first quarter, management said Thursday.

Fresh off an asset streamlining and an Eaglebine joint venture (JV) formation with EOG Resources Corp. (see NGI, April 1), Houston-based ZaZa Energy Corp. executives are touting their heavy weighting to the emerging stacked South Texas play and said what’s learned from the JV will add value to the company’s 100% owned acreage.