Comstock sells stake in Bakken assets to Northern Oil and Gas for $154 mln
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' Comstock Resources (CRK.N)
on Thursday agreed to sell its assets in North Dakota's Bakken basin to
Northern Oil and Gas for $154 million, as it looks to shore up capital.
Oil and gas companies have been looking to sell assets to
take advantage of a rise in commodity prices as well as bolster cash reserves
on their balance sheets for dividends and buybacks to counter investor
pressure.
Reuters reported last month that Northern was the
front-runner to buy the stake.
The sale includes a non-operated working interest in more
than 400 wells, with production of over 4,500 net barrels of oil equivalent per
day.
Comstock said it expects to recognize a pre-tax loss of $130
million to $140 million on the divestiture.
Comstock's stake sale in its Bakken assets comes at a time
when deal activity has been rising in Haynesville Shale, Louisiana, where the
company produces most of its oil and gas.
The company said it plans to re-invest the proceeds from the
property sale into developing Haynesville shale, where it plans to speed up the
completion of some wells. Comstock may also use a portion of the proceeds to
lease land and fund additional drilling activity in 2022.
Comstock's Louisiana rivals Southwestern Energy (SWN.N) and
Chesapeake Energy (CHK.O) recently bought Indigo Natural Resources and Vine
Energy, respectively, as they look to scale up in the Haynesville basin, which
is located close to the hubs that export liquefied natural gas.
Northern, which invests in non-operated minority working and
mineral interests in oil and gas properties, had acquired stakes earlier this
year in Texas' Permian basin for about $102 million and in Pennsylvania's
gas-heavy Marcellus basin for $126 million.
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