WPX Boosts Liquidity With $910M Piceance Basin Sale

WPX Energy has a deal in place to sell its natural gas assets in Colorado's Piceance Basin for $910 million.

WPX Energy Inc. (WPX) has a deal in place to sell its natural gas assets in Colorado's Piceance Basin for $910 million boosting liquidity as it attempts to weather the slump in oil prices. Tulsa, Okla.-based WPX is selling about 200,000 net acres that are producing about 500 million cubic feet equivalent per day. The buyer is Houston, Texas-based Terra Energy Partners LLC, which said in a statement it believes there are about 2 trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved developed producing reserves over the territory to be acquired. As part of the deal, Terra will also receive natural gas hedges with a current in the money value of more than 90 million in exchange for assuming about $100 million of WPX's future transportation obligations. The deal is the first for Terra after being formed last summer. The buyer said that it would fund the deal via increased equity commitments from existing investor Kanye Private Energy Income Fund along with an equity commitment from affiliates of new investor Warburg Pincus LLC bringing Terra's aggregate equity commitment to $800 million. The sale continues a portfolio overhaul focused on growing in Texas' Permian Basin and North Dakota's Williston Basin.