Oklahoma-based Chesapeake closed its sale of 413,000 net acres in West Virginia and southwest Pennsylvania to Houston-based Southwestern Energy Tuesday for $4.957 billion.
Also on Tuesday, Statoil sold a six percent working interest in its non-operated southern Marcellus assets to Southwestern for $394 million as part of a larger acquisition deal inked between Southwestern and Chesapeake Energy.
Statoil will reduce its non-operated working interest in the assets down to 23 percent from 29 percent.
The Statoil and Chesapeake transactions cover a combined 515,000 acres in the southern part of the Marcellus shale play.
Following the sale, Norway-based Statoil and Southwestern signed a new joint development agreement for the assets.
Statoil’s divested share of the assets covers 30,000 acres and produced about 4,000 barrels during the third quarter.
The transaction is expected to close in first quarter of 2015.
“The transaction reduces Statoil’s non-operated holdings at an attractive price, demonstrating the value of the Marcellus assets” Statoil senior vice president and U.S. onshore head Torstein Hole said.
