ConocoPhillips is eyeing a sale of Permian Basin assets as the producer works to close a $22.5 billion acquisition of Marathon Oil.

Houston-based ConocoPhillips is exploring a sale of non-core assets in the Permian’s Delaware Basin that could fetch over $1 billion, according to Oct. 30 news reports. The company has tapped RBC Capital Markets to run a sales process for the assets, according to a Reuters report.

The package includes 55,000 net acres in the Delaware Basin. Production is estimated to reach around 17,000 boe/d by year-end.

ConocoPhillips reportedly tried to sell the assets in 2022 but could not agree on a deal with potential buyers.

ConocoPhillips is getting deeper in the Permian through a $17.1 billion acquisition of Marathon Oil that includes the assumption of $5.4 billion in Marathon debt.

When announcing the Marathon acquisition, ConocoPhillips laid out plans to raise $2 billion for debt reduction by divesting non-core assets.

Marathon shareholders signed off on the $17.1 billion transaction this summer, but the deal is facing antitrust scrutiny from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. ConocoPhillips expects the Marathon acquisition to close late in the fourth quarter.

Other producers are pruning their portfolios for non-core asset sales after completing large-scale M&A transactions.

Occidental Petroleum sold a southern Delaware Basin package to Permian Resources for $818 million in the third quarter. The sale came after Occidental closed a $12 billion acquisition of Midland Basin E&P CrownRock.

APA Corp., parent company of Apache, completed a $950 million sale of conventional assets in the Permian’s Central Basin Platform to an undisclosed private buyer.

In April, APA closed a $4.5 billion acquisition of Callon Petroleum, deepening its horizontal portfolio in the core of the Permian.

After completing a $60 billion acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources, Exxon Mobil is considering asset sales in the Permian and in the North Dakota Bakken shale.

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