Anadarko to buy Freeport McMoRan’s Gulf of Mexico assets for $2 bn
14 Sep 2016
US-based oil and natural-gas producer Anadarko Petroleum Corp yesterday struck a deal to buy deepwater Gulf of Mexico assets of Freeport McMoRan Inc's oil and gas unit for around $2 billion.
Anadarko will finance the deal by selling 35.25 million shares in a new offering, equal to $2.04 billion at Monday's closing price.
Anadarko, based in Texas, said that the deal will double its acreage in the Lucius development to approximately 49 per cent from its earlier 23.8-per cent and add approximately 80,000 net barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day, more than 80 per cent of which is oil.
"This immediately accretive, bolt-on transaction strengthens our industry-leading position in the Gulf of Mexico and is a catalyst for the company's oil-growth objectives, with quality assets being acquired at an attractive price to create significant value," said Anadarko chairman, president and CEO, Al Walker.
"Additionally, the transaction expands Anadarko's infrastructure in the Gulf, adds to our unmatched inventory of low-cost, subsea tieback opportunities, and bolsters optionality with new exploration prospects," he added.
Freeport-McMoRan had in 2014 acquired some deepwater Gulf of Mexico assets from Apache Corp for around $1 billion, just before the decline of global crude prices.
Including this latest deal, Freeport-McMoRan has announced more than $6 billion worth of asset sales for 2016.
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