Whiting Petroleum has reached an agreement with an undisclosed private company to acquire certain oil and gas assets in the Williston Basin, North Dakota, a $271m in cash.
The company has also signed a separate agreement to sell its assets in the Denver-Julesburg Basin (DJ Basin), Colorado, for $187m.
In the Williston Basin, the Delaware-based firm is acquiring an acreage of 8,752 net acres with net daily production of nearly 4,200 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/d). According to the company, 80% of the production from the assets is oil.
The assets are located in Mountrail County and come with five gross/ 2.3 net drilled and uncompleted wells, and 61 gross/39.5 net undrilled locations.
Whiting Petroleum said that the assets adjoin and complement its existing operations in the Sanish field. Due to this, the company expects the additional general and administrative costs to operate the newly acquired acreage to be minimal.
In the other deal, the company is divesting its Redtail assets in the DJ Basin, including their associated midstream assets. The assets, which are all located in Weld County are being sold to an undisclosed buyer.
The assets involved in the sale are spread over 67,278 net acres. Their daily production is around 7,100BOE/d, of which, 51% is oil.
Whiting Petroleum president and CEO Lynn Peterson said: “These two transactions result in a significantly deeper drilling inventory in our key Sanish operating area, while divesting of properties in Colorado that were not going to compete internally for capital.
“These transactions demonstrate our strategy to focus our attention on value-enhancing opportunities that compete for capital in a $50 oil environment. Including these transactions, the Company now estimates that in a mid-$50s oil environment it has over 6 years of high-quality drilling inventory, assuming a two rig drilling program.”
The two deals are anticipated to be completed in Q3 2021.
Whiting Petroleum operates mainly in the Rocky Mountains region, US with a focus on developing and producing crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. The company had wrapped up a financial restructuring programme and had emerged from Chapter 11 protection in September 2020.
