The major deal of the past 30 days is Devon Energy's sale of all of its assets in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, and Azerbaijan to BP for $7 billion. The two companies also plan to form a heavy oil joint venture to develop BP's Kirby oil sands leases in Alberta. With the purchase, BP enters the deepwater offshore Brazil and expands its already commanding presence in the Gulf of Mexico. The other significant international transaction is CNOOC's entry into the Latin American petroleum sector via its 50/50 joint venture with Argentina's Bridas Energy Holdings. Completion of the transaction is expected in the first half of 2010. Bridas and its affiliates are engaged in oil and gas exploration and production in Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile.
In the US, the big news was Pittsburgh–based CONSOL Energy's purchase of Dominion Resources' oil and gas assets in the Appalachian region. The acquisition complements CONSOL's existing natural gas business, which is operated through CNX Gas, its 83% owned subsidiary.
The transaction includes the rights to roughly 491,000 acres in the Marcellus Shale, nearly tripling CONSOL's position in the formation to roughly 750,000 acres in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. J. Brett Harvey, CONSOL's president and CEO, noted, "Two compelling aspects of this transaction are that 98% of Dominion's Marcellus acres are held by production and the average net revenue interest is 87.5%."
