Chesapeake Energy (CHKA.Q) has finalized the planned sale of most of its assets in the Permian Basin, according to a company press release. The buyers, each of which took away a "package" of assets in the basin, were subsidiaries of Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.B) and Chevron (CVX 0.44%), and affiliates of the privately held EnerVest.
Total net proceeds of the sales were roughly $3.3 billion, according to the company. Chesapeake received around $2.8 billion in cash and is to obtain the balance when contingencies are met. The firm said it will use the proceeds to pay down debt.
Chesapeake is the country's second-largest natural gas producer. This is problematic because prices for the commodity are coming off of 10-year lows. The company is actively shifting resources to the production of oil, a significantly more lucrative activity at the moment.
The Permian Basin is a large reservoir of oil spread across Texas and New Mexico. The assets sold by Chesapeake had daily production levels of around 21,000 barrels of liquids and 90 million cubic feet of natural gas. They accounted for about 5.7% of Chesapeake's production during the second quarter.
The deal follows several other asset sales made by the company this year. It had hoped to raise $13 billion-$14 billion in such deals by the end of the year.
