sale

Midstates Petroleum Co. Inc. said Wednesday that it has reached a deal with an undisclosed buyer to sell its Anadarko Basin properties in the Texas panhandle and western Oklahoma for $58 million.

Reflecting the continuing surge in Permian Basin drilling, the New Mexico State Land Office (SLO) reported that it is nearing a record in oil and natural gas lease sale revenues, following the completion of a March auction that netted nearly $1.5 million.

To accelerate upstream development by its U.S. onshore exploration business, Tulsa-based Unit Corp. agreed Thursday to sell a half-stake in natural gas processing subsidiary Superior Pipeline Co. LLC for $300 million.

Japan’s Marubeni Corp. said it has sold some of its stakes in Eagle Ford Shale assets to two undisclosed oil and gas developers. Financial details also were not provided. The sale is part of a plan to strengthen the bottom line, it said. Marubeni in 2012 acquired a 35% interest in Hunt Oil Co.’s South Texas portfolio, which gave it 52,000 net acres. The producers agreed at the time to acquire more acreage in the Eagle Ford. Marubeni also has acreage in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, and it works in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Rex Energy Corp.has agreed to sell nonoperated assets in Westmoreland, Centre and Clearfield counties, PA, to privately owned XPR Resources LLC for $17.2 million. The sale is expected to close by the end of March. Included are 61 gross wells producing 8.2 MMcf/d. Rex began divesting noncore assets in 2015 to boost liquidity. The company disclosed in a regulatory filing in February that is exploring financial alternatives to strengthen its balance sheet, including the possibility of filing for bankruptcy.

Calgary-based Cenovus Energy Inc. is selling its natural gas-weighted Palliser properties in southeastern Alberta for $1.3 billion to a joint venture between privately held Canadian producer Torxen Energy and Schlumberger Ltd.

Resolute Energy Corp., which has turned its operational focus to the Permian Basin, has agreed to take up to $195 million for a package of Paradox Basin prospects in the Aneth field of southeastern Utah.

FERC has agreed to waive capacity release regulations and related tariff provisions to help facilitate the sale of Talen Energy Marketing LLC’s retail and wholesale natural gas trading business to an affiliate of NJR Energy Services Co.

In the first lease sale covering the entire Gulf of Mexico (GOM) since 1983, the Lower Tertiary Trend, an intriguing deepwater play that has yielded big-time discoveries, captured most of the attention.