Gastar

Backed by private equity, Gastar Exploration Inc. announced a 60-well drilling program Thursday for its leasehold in the Oklahoma STACK play (the Sooner Trend of the Anadarko Basin, mostly in Canadian and Kingfisher counties).

After exiting the Appalachian Basin earlier in the year, Gastar Exploration Inc. plans to spend the rest of 2016 delineating its multiple reservoirs within Oklahoma’s Sooner Trend of the Anadarko Basin, mostly in Canadian and Kingfisher counties, more commonly known as the STACK.

Houston’s Gastar Exploration Inc. expects to have initial flowback within the next two weeks from its second Meramec well in Kingfisher County, OK, which it completed with 34 hydraulic fracture stages.

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.

Gastar Exploration Inc. said it plans to spud a second test well targeting the Meramec formation within Oklahoma’s stacked shale plays after encouraging results from its first test well showed the formation extended farther to the northeast than previously thought.

Gastar Exploration Inc.’s first operated test in the Meramec formation within Oklahoma’s stacked reservoirs appears to extend the definition of one of the most promising plays in the U.S. onshore.

Hammered by Appalachian basis differentials, Gastar Exploration Inc. plans to continue focusing its capital on the Oklahoma liquids plays as it proceeds with plans to sell off its Marcellus and Utica acreage.

Looking to conclude a process that began roughly two years ago, Gastar Exploration Inc. said late Wednesday it is marketing its assets in the Appalachian Basin, where widening differentials have forced it to slow spending in recent years in favor of oilier assets in the Midcontinent.