Houston-based Linn Energy sold off its stakes in three Texas and Oklahoma shale assets for a total of $2.3 billion Thursday.
Linn will sell its entire position in the Granite Wash and Cleveland plays, located in the Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma, to privately held institutional affiliates of Houston-based EnerVest for $1.95 billion.
Linn will also sell ts Wolfberry positions in Ector and Midland counties in the Permian Basin for $350 million to Dallas-based Fleur de Lis Energy.
Proceeds from these sales are expected to finance the company’s $2.3 billion acquisition of assets from Oklahoma-based Devon Energy Corporation that closed in August 2014.
The Granite Wash and Cleveland properties include approximately 145,000 net acres, with 195 million cubic feet equivalent per day of current production.
The assets had proved reserves and related midstream facilities of 755 billion cubic feet equivalent at the end of 2013. Linn is running a four rig drilling program and planned to spend approximately $210 million of capital on these assets in 2014.
The Permian Basin properties include approximately 7,200 net acres, with 4.6 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day of current production and proved reserves of 19 million barrels of oil equivalent at the end of 2013.
Linn is running a two rig vertical drilling program at the site and planned to spend approximately $95 million of capital on these assets in 2014.
Following the closing of the sales, Linn will have remaining production of approximately eight thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day and approximately 6,600 net acres in the Midland Basin that is prospective for horizontal Wolfcamp drilling.
“One of our goals for 2014 was to maximize value for our Midland Basin and Granite Wash assets in order to reduce the capital intensity and decline rate within our portfolio,” Linn’s chairman, president and CEO Mark E. Ellis said.
The sale of the Granite Wash and Cleveland properties is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2014 with an effective date of September 1, 2014.
The sale of the Permian Basin properties is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2014 with an effective date of August 1, 2014.
