Today Chesapeake Energy (CHK), the second largest U.S. producer of natural gas, announced a deal to sell 78,000 acres in Louisiana’s Haynesville Shale for $450 million to Indigo Minerals. The deal brings Chesapeake’s asset sales in 2016 to $2 billion.
The sale includes 40,00 acres that Chesapeake had rated as core acreage. The sale also includes 250 wells with a current net production of about 30 million cubic feet of gas per day.
Chesapeake has plans to sell an additional 50,000 acres in the Haynesville formation in the first part of 2017.
The deal announced today plus the 50,000 additional acres for sale in 2017 would bing the company very close to its target of raising $2 billion to $3 billion for use in reducing the company’s debt load. Â Chesapeake finished the September quarter with $9 billion in long-term debt.
Chesapeake’s shares closed up 3.46% today. The stock is a member of my long-term 50 Stocks portfolio.
