ConocoPhillips has agreed to sell its interests in the Barnett shale of North Texas to an affiliate of Miller Thomson & Partners LLC, Lafayette, La., for $305 million plus net customary adjustments.
The assets’ 2016 production averaged 11,000 boe/d, of which 55% was natural gas and 45% was NGLs, and yearend proved reserves were 50 million boe. As of May 31, their net book value was $900 million. ConocoPhillips expects to take a noncash impairment on the assets in the second quarter.
As of yearend 2016, the firm had 68,000 net acres in the Barnett, according to the firm’s annual report.
The firm says proceeds from the deal, expected to close in the third quarter, will be used for general corporate purposes. It expects a less than 5,000 boe/d impact to its full-year 2017 production guidance.
ConocoPhillips late last year said it was planning to divest $5-8 billion in assets primarily relating to North American gas as part of its effort to accelerate “the company’s value proposition of a strong balance sheet, growing dividend, and disciplined growth.”
The firm in April agreed to sell its interests in the San Juan basin of northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado to a partnership of Houston-based Hilcorp Energy Co. and Washington DC-based private equity firm The Carlyle Group for up to $3 billion (OGJ Online, Apr. 13, 2017).
That move followed ConocoPhillips’ March agreement to sell its 50% interest in the Foster Creek-Christina Lake oil sands partnership and the majority of the firm’s Deep basin conventional assets in Alberta and British Columbia to Cenovus Energy Inc. for $13.3 billion (OGJ Online, Mar. 30, 2017).
Miller Thomson acquires and develops producing gas properties and related pipeline gathering and processing facilities, and markets gas to large-scale end users, primarily gas-fueled chemical, electric-generating, and LNG businesses along the US Gulf Coast and in Mexico.
Contact Matt Zborowski at [email protected].
