Pioneer Natural To Sell Hugoton And Barnett Shale Assets For $495 Mln

(RTTNews) - Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (PXD) said Monday that it has agreed to sell all of its assets in the Hugoton field and the Barnett Shale for total cash proceeds of $495 million.

Pioneer has entered into a purchase and sale agreement to sell all of its assets in the Hugoton field in Kansas to Linn Energy, LLC (LINE) for cash proceeds of $340 million, subject to normal closing adjustments. The deal has an effective date of July 1, and is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2014.

The assets being sold represent all of Pioneer's interests in the field, including all of its producing oil and gas wells, all of its interest in the Satanta gas processing plant and all other associated infrastructure. Net production from Hugoton averaged approximately 6,600 barrels oil equivalent per day during the first six months of 2014, consisting of gas and natural gas liquids.

The sale of Pioneer's Hugoton assets is expected to result in a pretax noncash loss of approximately $20 million, which is expected to be recorded in the third quarter of 2014.

Pioneer has also entered into a purchase and sale agreement to sell all of its Barnett Shale assets in North Texas to an undisclosed private company for cash proceeds of $155 million, subject to normal closing adjustments. The deal has an effective date of August 1, and is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2014.