Gastar Exploration Inc. (AMEX: GST) completed the sale of its interest in the West Edmond Hunton Lime Unit (WEHLU) for $107.5 million, the company said Feb. 28.
The WEHLU encompasses only the Upper and Lower Hunton producing formations and is primarily located in Oklahoma and Logan counties, Okla. The sale had an effective date of Oct. 1 and resulted in net cash proceeds of $98.8 million at closing.
Gastar expects the divestiture to provide sufficient liquidity to fund its core Stack acreage development plan through 2018. The company is planning to drill and complete about 20 Stack wells and delineate its Meramec and Osage assets in 2018.
The buyer of the assets was Revolution Resources LLC, a Mountain Capital Partners LP company, according to regulatory filings.
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Seaport Global Securities said in a Jan. 26 note that Gastar's noncore asset sale provides a “huge liquidity victory” for the company, which exited third-quarter 2017 with liquidity consisting solely of about $29 million cash.
Gastar likely would have exhausted its treasury by the end of first-quarter 2018, Seaport’s report said.
Michael A. Gerlich, Gastar's senior vice president and CFO, said in a statement, "The completion of this asset divestiture allows Gastar to redirect funds from a noncore asset to the drilling of operated Osage and Meramec wells on our 67,000 net surface acres in our core Stack position. This level of activity will allow us to continue to both delineate our acreage for the Osage and Meramec formations as well as hold our acreage by production."
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