BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) is angling for buyers of its Fayetteville Shale gas assets in Arkansas as it looks to balance its holdings in oil and natural gas, Bloomberg reported Oct. 27.
“We will only divest the field if it maximizes value for shareholders,” CEO Andrew Mackenzie said in a statement.
In 2011, BHP spent $20 billion on shale assets in the U.S., grabbing acreage in U.S. plays in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. Former CEO Marius Kloppers later gave up his fiscal 2012 bonus after booking a $2.84 billion charge on the Fayetteville assets due to lower natural gas prices.
“It’s certainly the least valuable part of their onshore portfolio,” David Radclyffe, a Sydney-based analyst at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, said by phone.
BHP bought Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s (NYSE: CHK) Fayetteville assets in 2011 for $4.75 billion. The company also acquired Petrohawk Energy Corp.
The transaction included about 487,000 net acres of leasehold, net production of about 415 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day and 420 miles of pipeline.
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