Southwestern Energy Co. announced that it has signed a deal to acquire 413,000 net acres in West Virginia and Pennsylvania from Chesapeake Energy Corp. for $5.375 billion, reports the Pittsburgh Business Times. This acquisition includes 256 producing and 179 unoperated or nonproducing Marcellus and Utica Shale wells. These assets will complement those Southwestern already has in the Marcellus Shale in northeastern Pennsylvania.
The Pittsburgh Business Times reports that Rice Energy Inc. is acquiring 12 wells and 22,000 net acres in Greene County, Pennsylvania from Chesapeake Energy Inc. Seven of the wells are currently producing and the five other wells are being developed, according to a statement by Rice.
Warren Resources has executed a purchase and sale agreement to acquire Marcellus shale assets from Citrus Energy Corporation and two other working interest owners, reports Shale Energy Insider. The acquired assets, located in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, are all held by production, and provide Warren with a new core area in addition to its oil assets in California and natural gas assets in Wyoming.
Three transactions involving Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale have reportedly totaled $882 million in the first quarter of 2013, the second-most for any formation in the country. Ohio’s Utica Shale formation was the subject of two deals worth $283 million, making it the third-most popular. PwC tracked energy deals worth more than $50 million and included acquisitions, investments or partnerships allowing companies to split the costs associated with oil and gas development. The first quarter results represent a significant drop for Marcellus Shale transactions from the first quarter of 2012, where three transactions were reportedly worth about $3 billion.
EQT Corporation announced today that it will sell its distribution subsidiary Equitable Gas Company, LLC, to Peoples Natural Gas for $720 million, subject to adjustment. EQT CEO David Porges said in a company press release that the sale will allow EQT to focus on its production and midstream business segments. In the deal, EQT also will receive about 200 miles of transmission lines and four storage pools. Meanwhile, the transaction will make Peoples the largest gas utility and one of only two in the Pittsburgh area. View the Peoples press release on the transaction. The Tribune-Review has more on the sale.
Stat Oil ASA, Norway’s largest oil and gas producer, has acquired approximately 70,000 acres of shale gas acreage in Marcellus states, including West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, for $590 million according to Fox Business News. With the finalization of this acquisition, Stat Oil ASA now operates production wells in all major shale plays across the U.S. Stat Oil ASA originally entered the Marcellus Shale play through a 2008 partnership with Chesapeake (CHK) which includes a significant interest (32.5%) in Chesapeake leases held in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia.