Pioneer completes sale of Delaware basin holdings
US shale company Pioneer Natural Resources said December 21 that it completed the sale of its acreage in the Delaware basin inside the Permian play to Continental Resources for $3.1bn.
The recent decision by Continental to buy into the Delaware basin could increase its output by around 58,000 barrels of oil equivalent/day. According to Justin Allen, an upstream analyst for GlobalData, the Delaware basin has a “huge untapped potential.”
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Pioneer said it had initially intended to include its Delaware basin holdings in its fourth quarter report, but will not include anything after December 20 due to the completion of the sale.
Permian is the largest shale oil producing basin in the Lower 48 US states and the second-largest gas basin, behind the Appalachian shale. Most of Pioneer’s production was in crude oil, though production across the board was higher than expected during the third quarter.
Continental, for its part, is a major stakeholder in the Bakken and Anadarko shale basins. The Bakken formation is among the top oil-producing basins in the Lower 48 states, but the smallest natural gas producer
The all-cash transaction was Continental’s first major purchase in the southern US reserve.