Anadarko Petroleum to sell Eagleford Shale assets for about $2.3 bn

Anadarko Petroleum Corp, one of the world's largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies, yesterday struck a deal to sell its Eagleford Shale assets in South Texas for about $2.3 billion.

The sale comes less than a month after the Texas-based company agreed to sell certain natural gas assets in the Marcellus shale to a unit of Alta Resources Development LLC for about $1.24 billion. (See: Anadarko Petroleum to sell some Marcellus shale natural gas assets for $1.24 bn) The Eagleford Shale assets are being sold to Sanchez Energy Corporation and private equity firm Blackstone Group.

The divestiture includes approximately 155,000 net acres primarily located in Dimmit and Web counties.

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2016, sales volumes from these properties totaled approximately 45,000 barrels of liquids per day and approximately 131 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions and adjustments.

The company's master limited partnership, Western Gas Partners LP, would continue to own and operate its midstream assets in South Texas, Anadarko said.

"The ongoing success of our portfolio-management activities provides us with the flexibility to further accelerate capital investments in our higher-return oil opportunities in the Delaware Basin, the DJ Basin, and the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, which drive our ability to deliver a 12- to 14-per cent five-year compounded annual oil growth rate," said Al Walker, Anadarko chairman, president and CEO.

Including this latest deal, Anadarko has announced more than $5 billion worth of asset sales in 2016 and $2.3 billion in 2017.