Sell

Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. has decided to sell what remains of its oil/natural gas business by the end of next year, CEO David Emery reported during a 3Q2017 earnings conference call on Friday. Included are San Juan Basin and Powder River Basin assets.

Five months after emerging from bankruptcy, Samson Resources II LLC has agreed to sell its assets in East Texas and North Louisiana to an affiliate of Rockcliff Energy II for $525 million, and it plans to focus on developing its remaining assets in Wyoming’s Green River and Powder River basins.

BHP Billiton Ltd. on Wednesday detailed a sweeping plan to accelerate some U.S. activity onshore and offshore, highlighting plans to raise more natural gas rigs in the Haynesville Shale, swap land in the Permian Basin, complete more wells in the Eagle Ford Shale and sell off the Fayetteville Shale portfolio.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co. has agreed to sell an acreage package in the Permian Basin of West Texas to an undisclosed buyer for $266 million. The sale in northeastern Martin County includes current production of 1,500 boe/d net. The Dallas independent said in February it wasevaluating offers to sell about 20,500 acres in Martin County. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of April.

FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiary Allegheny Energy Supply Co. LLC (AE Supply) has struck a nonbinding agreement with an undisclosed party to sell 1,572 MW of natural gas and hydro generating assets for $885 million.

Denver-based SM Energy Co. has hired Petrie Partners to sell noncore assets in the Williston Basin’s Bakken Shale to focus additional capital on the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale. According to the company, about 54,500 net acres are being marketed, consisting of the Raven/Bear Den acreage and leases outside the Divide County, ND, development.

A bankruptcy court in New York has approved plans by Norse Energy Corp. USA to sell its assets, especially oil and gas leases for about 130,000 net acres in the state’s portion of the Marcellus and Utica shales.

Houston-based ZaZa Energy LLC has struck a deal to sell about 10,300 acres in Fayette, Gonzalez and Lavaca counties in Texas for about $28.8 million to a unit of Sanchez Energy after a deal fell through with another buyer that was unable to fund and close a transaction, parent ZaZa Energy Corp. said. ZaZa calls the acreage its Moulton properties. In March, ZaZa announced two pending Moulton sales: one for $43.3 million for 10,000 acres and another for the remainder of its Moulton properties for $9.2 million (see Shale Daily, March 26). “Given the current landscape, we believe that transacting at this metric was the best and most prudent action for the company at this time,” ZaZa CEO Todd Brooks said of the latest deal. “We remain focused on monetizing select Eagle Ford assets in order to improve our balance sheet, and we are currently pursuing other joint ventures in the area. In the Eaglebine, our joint venture is progressing as planned, and we anticipate timely drilling of the first three wells as part of the agreement [see Shale Daily, April 8].” ZaZa has received a down payment of $1.4 million for the Moulton properties; closing of the sale is expected by July 31.

Malaysia national oil and gas company Petronas (Petroliam Nasional Berhad) is in negotiations to sell a 10% stake in Canadian shale properties it acquired last year to the state-owned Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. (IOC).