Southwestern Energy Co. (NYSE: SWN) said March 19 it sold about 100 miles of gathering assets in northeastern Pennsylvania in a deal that should assuage some concerns about the company’s balance sheet.
The assets in Bradford and Lycoming counties, Pa., were purchased by Howard Midstream Energy Partners LLC for $500 million, SWN said. The natural gas gathering pipeline has about 600 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of capacity.
Southwestern said proceeds from the transaction will be used to repay borrowings under its $500 million term loan, which matures in December 2016.
The deal represents a major step toward completing SWN’s acquisition financing plan, said Steve Mueller, chairman and CEO. “With this deal, we are well on our way to achieving the $600 million to $800 million in divestiture proceeds announced as part of that plan.”
SWN had previously disclosed plans to sell $600-$800 million in assets associated with its fiscal 2015 capital plan and recent southwest Marcellus acquisition, though the deal likely comes faster than Wall Street expectations, said David Kistler, co-head of E&P research, Simmons & Co.
Simmons estimates a gap of about $700 million in SWN’s cash flow in 2015.
“The sale should help,” Kistler said.
SWN also intends to divest assets in the Ark-La-Tex basin, which should help the company achieve its divestiture goals.
“While SWN disclosed few details regarding today's transaction, we suspect there will be some type of contractual obligation for minimum volumes on the gathering system and will look to the company for additional clarity,” Kistler said.
Southwestern has been on a tear since December, acquiring more than $5.6 billion in assets.
In February, the company said it had closed transactions with subsidiaries of Statoil (NYSE: STO) and WPX Energy Inc. (NYSE: WPX). In the Statoil deal, Southwestern acquired 30,000 net acres in West Virginia and southwest Pennsylvania for $365 million. In the WPX transaction, Southwestern acquired approximately 46,700 net acres in northeast Pennsylvania and firm transportation capacity of 260 MMcf/d on the Millennium pipeline for $288 million.
In December, Southwestern closed a $4.975 billion deal with Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) for assets in the southern Marcellus Shale and a portion of the eastern Utica Shale.
The gathering system transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2015.
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