APA Corp.’s sale of Midland Basin, Austin Chalk and Eagle Ford Shale assets closed earlier than the company expected and for about $40 million less anticipated, APA said in its July 11 operations update.

APA said in May that it would sell about 24,000 net royalty acres across several counties in the Midland and 237,000 net acres in the East Texas Austin Chalk and Eagle Ford plays. The company initially said the sale price would total more than $700 million. The buyers were not disclosed.

The deals, which were expected to close in the third quarter, were completed in June for an aggregate of approximately $660 million.

APA said the assets would result in reduced U.S. production of 2,000 boe/d, of which 30% was oil. APA said in May the properties represented an average 13,000 boe/d.

APA Closes Midland Basin, Eagle Ford Divestitures for $660 Million
APA has a large acreage position in the Austin Chalk and Eagle Ford Shale plays. (Source: Rextag data)

Following the close of APA’s $4.5 billion acquisition of Callon Petroleum in April, the company has looked at non-core asset sales for debt reduction.

Barclays served as the financial adviser on the Midland Basin transaction, which has an effective date of April 1, 2024. TD Securities served as financial adviser for the Eagle Ford asset sale, which has an effective date of Jan. 1, 2024.