Anadarko to sell Marcellus assets to Alta Resources for $1.24 billion

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., The Woodlands, Tex., has agreed to sell its operated and nonoperated upstream assets and operated midstream assets in the Marcellus shale of north-central Pennsylvania to Alta Marcellus Development LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Houston-based Alta Resources Development LLC, for $1.24 billion.

The deal, expected to close during first-quarter 2017, includes 195,000 net acres. At the end of the third quarter, sales volumes from the properties totaled 470 MMcfd. Excluded from the agreement are the Marcellus midstream assets owned by Western Gas Partners LP, Anadarko's sponsored master limited partnership.

"With this transaction, we have announced or closed monetizations totaling well in excess of $5 billion in 2016, while principally focusing Anadarko's US onshore activities on our world-class oil-levered assets in the Delaware and DJ basins," said Al Walker, Anadarko chairman, president, and chief executive officer.

Anadarko in November sold its Carthage upstream and midstream assets in East Texas to Castleton Commodities International LLC (CCI) for $1 billion (OGJ Online, Nov. 12, 2016). The firm this month also closed on its $2-billion purchase of Freeport McMoRan Oil & Gas’s deepwater Gulf of Mexico assets (OGJ Online, Sept. 12, 2016).

Anadarko last week confirmed that it added 2 rigs in each of its Delaware and DJ basin positions early in the fourth quarter (OGJ Online, Dec. 16, 2016). The firm plans to further increase activity in each area, expecting to end first-quarter 2017 with 14 operated rigs in the Delaware and 6 in the DJ, compared with 7 and 1 in the basins, respectively, at the end of this year’s third quarter.