Assets

After 2015 failed to deliver the expected spike in oil and natural gas industry merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the United States and abroad, a group of Appalachian experts is anticipating much more this year, particularly in the Marcellus and Utica shales.

SandRidge Energy Inc. is evaluating options to take the company private or voluntarily reorganize under Chapter 11, the Oklahoma City-based independent said Wednesday.

Range Resources Corp. has closed the sale of nearly 11,000 non-operated acres in Northeast Pennsylvania’s Bradford County as it continues to divest noncore assets and pay down debt during the commodities slump.

Days before it expects to close on a deal to sell all of its assets in the Appalachian Basin and become a pure play operator in the stacked Midcontinent, Gastar Exploration Inc. said it plans to sell about one quarter of its assets in Oklahoma and will suspend its monthly cash dividend in order to maintain liquidity.

Gastar Exploration Inc. said Monday that it would sell its Marcellus and Utica shale assets to an affiliate of privately held investment developer Tug Hill Inc. for $80 million and exit the Appalachian Basin in favor of its Midcontinent assets. The company added, however, that it would mostly suspend exploratory drilling there until 2017 on low oil and gas prices.

Natural gas-heavy WPX Energy Inc. is selling its Piceance Basin properties in Colorado to a recently formed independent for $910 million, solidifying its decision to focus less on gas and more on its oily portfolio in the onshore.

Tulsa-based private equity firm BlueStone Natural Resources II has reportedly purchased the U.S. assets of bankruptcy-immersed Quicksilver Resources Inc. for $245 million, according to a company announcement Saturday. An auction was held last Wednesday and Thursday (see Shale Daily,Jan. 20).

Houston-based Swift Energy Co., whose primary operations are in the Eagle Ford Shale and Louisiana, filed for voluntary bankruptcy protection in the waning hours of 2015, and has begun a restructuring process that includes turning over control of the company and selling assets.

BP plc’s Lower 48 onshore business on Friday snapped up all of Devon Energy Corp.’s natural-gas rich San Juan Basin assets, including 480 wells spread across 33,000 gross acres, in the “first major acquisition” by the business in seven years.