Completed

Denbury Resources Inc. said Monday that it has completed the first phase of its sale of 196,000 net acres in the Bakken Shale to ExxonMobil Corp. for $1.6 billion in cash and ExxonMobil’s operating interests in Webster Field in Texas, Hartzog Draw Field in Wyoming and an interest in the Carbon Dioxide (CO2) reserves in ExxonMobil’s LaBarge Field in Wyoming.

Houston-based Plains Exploration & Production Co. reported Friday that it has completed the separate acquisitions of Gulf of Mexico (GOM) properties owned by BP Exploration & Production Inc., BP America Production Co. and Shell Offshore Inc. for a combined total of $6.1 billion.

Oneok Partners LP is holding an open season through Dec. 17 for its 600-mile Bakken Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) Pipeline, which would transport unfractionated NGLs from the Bakken Shale in the Williston Basin to an interconnection with the partnership’s 50%-owned Overland Pass Pipeline in northern Colorado. The Bakken NGL Pipeline is under construction and is expected to be in service during the first quarter. In July Oneok said it would expand the project with additional pump stations in a project to be completed during the third quarter of 2014. For open season information, contact Lisa Nishimuta at (918) 588-7730, lisa.nishimuta@oneok.com.

Houston-based ZaZa Energy has completed drilling and casing its Eaglebine Stingray A-1H well in Walker County, TX, and evaluation results are “very encouraging,” with estimates of 21 Bcf of gas and 29 million bbl of oil per section in place. ZaZa expects to begin hydraulic fracturing operations on Monday (Nov. 12), with initial production planned for late this month.

Marathon Oil Corp.’s third quarter profits jumped 11% year/year on strong revenue growth and increased production, especially from the Eagle Ford Shale.

Houston-based ZaZa Energy has completed drilling and casing its Eaglebine Stingray A-1H well in Walker County, TX, and said evaluation results are “very encouraging,” with estimates of 21 Bcf of gas and 29 million bbl of oil per section in place. ZaZa said it expects to begin hydraulic fracturing operations on Nov. 12, with initial production planned for late November.

Royal Dutch Shell plc on Wednesday said it has completed its preliminary drilling program for this year in Alaska’s offshore.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has completed sales of its Permian Basin properties, which allows it to reduce the outstanding balance on existing term loans to $1.2 billion from $4 billion by the end of this month. The company said it plans to fully repay the term loans by the end of the year. The assets sold produced close to 21,000 b/d of liquids and 90 MMcf/d of natural gas in 2Q2012, or about 5.7% of Chesapeake’s production during the period. The multi-sales package was announced in September (see Shale Daily, Sept. 13). SWEPI LP, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc, bought the southern Delaware Basin assets, while the northern Delaware Basin portion was sold to Chevron U.S.A. Inc., a subsidiary of Chevron Corp. The producing assets in the Midland Basin were sold to affiliates of Houston-based EnerVest Ltd.

Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) and Harvest Pipeline Co. have tentatively agreed to develop the capability to ship Utica Shale production from eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania by barge on the Ohio River.