Hunt Oil Co., Dallas, has agreed to buy substantially all of the oil and gas assets of Pacific Enterprises Oil Co. (U.S.A.), a subsidiary of Pacific Enterprises, Los Angeles.
Hunt will pay $371 million for leases mainly in Texas, Wyoming, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The acquired properties will add oil and gas reserves of about 63 million bbl of oil equivalent and nearly 1.4 million gross leasehold acres to Hunt's exploration and production assets.
Included in the assets to be acquired are several oil and gas fields on the Burnett Ranch in King County, Tex., and a subsidiary corporation that has production interests in Colombia.
Hunt's current U.S. operations are concentrated in the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Coast region, and Midcontinent. Abroad, the company is active in Argentina, Canada, Ethiopia, France, Guyana, Laos, the U.K., and Yemen. The company's most noted international success was its discovery of oil in 1984 in Yemen, a country in which no oil had been found.
Gary T. Hurford, Hunt president, said the purchase hinges on a number of conditions, but both companies expect the transaction to be complete by yearend.
"The sale of these assets represents another major step forward in the restructuring plan we announced earlier this year," said Willis B. Wood Jr., Pacific Enterprises chairman, president, and chief executive officer.
"Completing the sale will conclude most of our nonutility divestitures. Building upon this very important step, we will take additional measures to cut costs and strengthen our balance sheet in line with our plan."
Pacific Enterprises' restructuring plan involves exiting its nonutility businesses and placing greater focus on its core business, Southern California Gas Co., the largest natural gas distribution utility in the U.S.
Pacific Enterprises' sold its Thrifty Corp. retailing unit last September.
Separate negotiations to sell the assets of the company's Canadian exploration and production subsidiary, Pacific Enterprise Oil Co. (Canada), Calgary, are under way.
"We also hope to complete that sale by about the end of the year," Wood said.
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