Ascent Resources enters bolt-on acquisition of Utica shale assets

Ascent Resources LLC, Oklahoma City, has agreed to acquire all Utica shale assets in Ohio from an undisclosed seller for $270 million.

The acquisition expands the private company’s asset base in the Ohio Utica shale play by about 26,800 net acres and increases net production by about 60 MMcfed, the company said in a release July 1. Ascent already holds working interests in a material portion of the acquired production, it continued.

The deal comes with an inventory of identified drilling locations in both the Utica and Marcellus, and requires no incremental overhead or external financing, the company said. 

Ascent Resources currently holds a contiguous acreage position of about 337,000 net leasehold acres, including about 73,000 mineral acres, in the core of the southern Utica Shale, primarily in Belmont, Jefferson, Guernsey, Harrison, and Noble counties Ohio. The company also owns royalty interests in about 5,700 mineral acres being developed by third-party operators.