Denver independent Whiting Petroleum Corp. has completed the sale of its midstream assets in North Dakota’s Williston basin to Tesoro Logistics Rockies LLC (TLRL), a division of Tesoro Corp. affiliate Tesoro Logistics LP (TLLP).
The sale included Whiting’s 50% interest in the 130-MMcfd natural gas processing plant in Sanish field and associated gas gathering system located in Mountrail County, ND, as well as its 50% stake in the 35-MMcfd Belfield gas processing plant near Pronghorn field and associated gas, crude, and water gathering in Stark, Billings, and Dunn counties, Whiting said.
Closing of the deal follows TLLP’s November 2016 announcement that it had entered an agreement with Whiting, GBK Investments LLC, and WBI Energy Midstream LLC to acquire the North Dakota midstream assets for $700 million as part of an effort to expand its North American midstream portfolio (OGJ Online, Nov. 22, 2016).
Whiting said it expects its portion of all-cash sale to be about $375 million, pending closing and post-closing adjustments.
Alongside the total 170-175 MMcfd of gas processing capacity, TLRL’s newly acquired assets in the Williston basin’s Sanish and Pronghorn fields include more than 650 miles of oil, gas, and produced water gathering pipelines, as well as 18,700 b/d of fractionation capacity.
Whiting’s decision to shed ownership of the North Dakota gathering and processing assets aligns with the company’s ongoing strategy to divest noncore midstream assets in order to focus on its upstream business, said James J. Volker, Whiting chairman, president, and chief executive officer.
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
