ExxonMobil Reportedly Seeking Bids for U.S. Shale Gas Assets
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ExxonMobil has reportedly commenced the sale of its U.S. shale gas assets, as part of its divestiture program to raise $15 billion by December this year.
The company’s XTO Energy shale unit is looking to sell nearly 5,000 natural gas wells in the Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas, spokeswoman Julie King told Reuters.
ExxonMobil bought the Fayetteville assets in 2010 for a price of $650 million at the time of U.S. shale boom.
The U.S. oil and gas company targets to receive bids for the assets this month, people familiar with the matter told the news agency.
“We are providing information to third parties that may have an interest in the assets,” King said.
Covering approximately 416,000 net acres, the Arkansas properties include some assets that were excluded from the company’s development plan last year.
King said that the sale consists of 844 operated and 4,104 non-operated wells.
ExxonMobil’s has already achieved a third of its $15 billion divestment program to reduce its massive debt that reached $70 billion last year.
The program includes dozens of assets in Asia, Africa, the U.S., and Europe.
In March this year, Romanian state-controlled gas company Romgaz made a binding offer to acquire ExxonMobil’s stake of 50 percent in the Neptun Deep offshore gas project that is planned to be developed in the Romanian part of the Black Sea.
In 2008, ExxonMobil acquired a stake in the deepwater block, which covers an area of nearly 7,500km and is contained in water depths ranging from 100-1,700m.
In February, the company sold its 32 percent stake in the Baeshiqa license in the Kurdistan region of Iraq to Norwegian oil and gas operator DNO.
Located 60km west of Erbil and 20km east of Mosul, the Baeshiqa license covers an area of over 324km.
Source: NS Energy
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