Sold

Escondido Resources II LLC of Midland, TX, has sold 11,050 net acres in the Eagle Ford Shale for $115.3 million. The sale consists of three distinct blocks of acreage located mainly in La Salle County in South Texas, Escondido said Tuesday.

Increased drilling activity in West Virginia’s Marcellus Shale area and a dramatic decline in revenues from natural gas drilling permits have prompted the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to seek a larger piece of the state’s budget pie, a larger staff to handle about 750 active wells and a dramatic increase of horizontal permitting fees.

Petrohawk Energy Corp. has sold its natural gas assets in the Fayetteville Shale to XTO Energy Inc., a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corp., for $575 million, the company said. The deal puts ExxonMobil at No. 2 in the Fayetteville leaseholder pack.

Petrohawk Energy Corp. has sold its natural gas assets in the Fayetteville Shale to XTO Energy Inc., a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corp., for $575 million, the company said. The deal puts ExxonMobil at No. 2 in the Fayetteville leaseholder pack.

Form 552 data collected by FERC indicates that more than 2,000 companies participated in almost 56 Tcf of physical gas market transactions in 2009, about 2.5 times the volume of gas produced, according to an analysis issued by FERC’s Office of Enforcement Thursday.

RAM Energy Resources Inc. has sold its North Texas Barnett Shale and Boonsville properties to Milagro Producing LLC for $43.7 million in cash, prior to adjustments.

Houston’s Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., which now is focused on shale exploration, said Tuesday it sold its remaining investment in Canada for $61.3 million.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has sold a five-year volumetric production payment (VPP) to an affiliate of Barclays Bank PLC for proceeds of $1.15 billion related to its production from the Barnett Shale of North Texas, the company said Monday.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has sold a five-year volumetric production payment (VPP) to an affiliate of Barclays Bank PLC for proceeds of $1.15 billion related to its production from the Barnett Shale of North Texas. The deal, which closed on Sept. 30, includes about 390 Bcf of proved reserves and about 280 MMcf/d net production in 2011. Chesapeake retained drilling rights on the properties below currently producing intervals and outside existing producing wellbores. Since December 2007 Chesapeake has completed eight VPP transactions and monetized approximately 1 Tcfe of proved reserves for combined proceeds of approximately $4.7 billion, or approximately $4.70/Mcfe (see Daily GPI, May 6). Earlier this year Chesapeake announced a reorganization of its natural gas operations in a plan to raise up to $5 billion to repay up to $3.5 billion of senior debt and to increase its investment in liquids-rich plays by up to $1.5 billion (see Daily GPI, May 11). Jefferies & Company Inc. was adviser to Chesapeake on the latest VPP transaction.