Anadarko Petroleum to sell some Marcellus shale natural gas assets for $1.24 bn

Anadarko Petroleum Corp, one of the world's largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies, yesterday struck a deal to sell certain natural gas assets in the Marcellus shale to a unit of Alta Resources Development LLC for about $1.24 billion.

The sale comes two months after Anadarko spent around $2 billion to buy deepwater Gulf of Mexico assets of Freeport McMoRan Inc's oil and gas unit. (See: Anadarko to buy Freeport McMoRan's Gulf of Mexico assets for $2 bn) The current sale includes its operated and non-operated upstream assets and operated midstream assets in the Marcellus Shale of north-central Pennsylvania.

The Marcellus shale divestiture includes approximately 195,000 net acres and, at the end of the third quarter of 2016, while sales volumes from these assets totaled approximately 470 million cubic feet per day.

The transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of 2017, subject to customary closing conditions and adjustments.

The sale excludes assets of Anadarko's master limited partnership, Western Gas Partners LP.

Including this latest deal, Anadarko has announced more than $5 billion worth of asset sales for 2016.

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

"Our Marcellus team has done a superb job of maximizing the value of our position in this natural gas play, and we are grateful for their efforts and dedication," he added.