More details are coming out about Newfield Exploration Company’s decision to unload all of its Texas assets so it can focus strongly on Oklahoma’s rich STACK play.
Turns out one of the buyers of Newfield’s unconventional assets in the Eagle Ford Shale is Tulsa-based Protégé Energy, a firm founded just 12 years ago by former Newfield Exploration Acquisitions and Planning Team Leader Martin Thalken. Protégé is backed by Houston-based Encap Investments in making the deal. The south Texas region is where Protégé had previous operations as well as those in the Permian Basin, the Appalachian and in Oklahoma’s Mid-Continent Basin.
The second buyer of the Newifleld holdings has yet to be revealed but the purchase involves holdings in south and west Texas. The combined sale is $390 million in assets.
The sale followed Newfield’s decision earlier in the year to consolidate operations at its headquarters in The Woodlands near Houston. The move resulted in job cuts at Newfield offices in Tulsa leaving the company with more than 1,100 employees. But the Tulsa operations went from 200 to less than 10. But in May, Newfield also made a $470 million acquisition of Oklahoma assets totaling 42,000 acres from a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy. It was part of Chesapeake’s move to divest more than $1 billion of its assets.
Now Newfield intends to stress its exploration in Canadian, Kingfisher and Blaine Counties of Oklahoma.
“Proceeds from the sale of our Texas assets will replenish our cash balance and position us for the timely acceleration of our STACK development in the future,” said Lee Boothby, chairman and CEO.
