While Chesapeake Energy prepared to release its quarterly and yearly earnings for a year that hasn’t been kind to the Oklahoma City-based company, it was announced Houston-based Haymaker Resources just purchased mineral and royalty interests involving more than 8,500 wells operated by Chesapeake. It is another sign of how deep in debt Chesapeake has grown in the past few years and to what extent corporate leaders are moving to get out of that debt.
The announcement said the deal was closed on Jan. 29, 2016 where Haymaker Resources acquired producing and non-producing mineral and royalty interests with more than 8,500 wells in 24 states and 324 counties. Most of the wells are in the Mid-Continent, Haynesville and Appalachia regions. As for the closing price, that would be known subject to post-closing adjustments.
“In the current market environment, operators are focusing on their core assets more than ever before,” said Karl Brensike, CEO of Haymaker. “I think everyone can agree there is nothing more non-core to an operator than owning non-operated royalty interests. This was a complex transaction, involving numerous business units formed over Chesapeake’s 30 years as a very active acquirer of premier oil and gas assets.”
Brensike admitted his company was lucky to have the capital structure to make the acquisition. The announcement did not include any comments from Chesapeake executives. As for Haymaker, the company was formed in 2013 and has closed more than 400 acquisitions. It owns mineral and royalty interests in more than 20,000 wells across the U.S.
