Chesapeake Energy said on Tuesday that it has sold acreage in the Haynesville shale area for $465 million.
The Oklahoma-based company has agreed to sell 41,500 net acres in its Haynesville shale operating area in northern Louisiana to an affiliate of Covey Park Energy.
The sale includes 326 operated and non-operated wells currently producing about 50 million cubic feet (mmcf) of gas per day, net to Chesapeake.
Chesapeake expects the transaction to close in the 2017 first quarter.
“We are pleased with the results of our non-core Haynesville sales packages, totaling projected gross proceeds of $915 million, while divesting of only approximately 80 mmcf of daily gas production and approximately $50 million of estimated 2017 operating income,” Chesapeake CEO Doug Lawler said.
Lawler added that Chesapeake exceeded its 2016 asset sales goal by about $500 million.
The company has now earned about $2.5 billion in total gross proceeds from divestitures either signed or closed in 2016, excluding certain volumetric production payment repurchase transactions.
The sale is the company’s second sale of Haynesville shale acreage this month.
Earlier this month, Chesapeake signed an agreement to sell a portion of its Haynesville acreage in northern Louisiana to a private company.
The sale includes about 78,000 net acres, with 40,000 net acres considered to be core acreage.
The sale also includes 250 wells currently producing about 30 million cubic feet of gas per day net to Chesapeake.
The company expects that transaction to close in the first quarter of 2017.
Chesapeake said when the first sale was announced that, following both of the planned divestitures, it will retain about 250,000 net acres in the core of the Haynesville Shale.
The company plans to focus its 2017 development program in the Haynesville on longer laterals and further enhanced completions.
Chesapeake expects the development plan to result in projected adjusted production growth of 13 percent from its Haynesville operations next year.
