Abraxas Sells Bakken Assets To NRP

Plans to sell the majority of its non-operated properties.

Abraxas Petroleum Corp. (Nasdaq: AXAS) plans to sell the majority of its non-operated Bakken properties to Natural Resource Partners LP (NYSE: NRP) for about $35.3 million in cash.

The assets are in the Bakken/Three Forks play in the Williston Basin of North Dakota and Montana. The acquisition is effective March 1.

The transaction includes about 13,500 net acres that are held by production with an estimated average working interest of 11%. The assets also include about 120 producing wells and interests in 22 wells that are in various stages of development.

Both buyer and seller anticipate that about $8.1 million in additional capital expenditures are needed to develop these new wells in 2013, a portion of which will be paid at closing. Both sides expect the acquisition to close in the third quarter.

Bob Watson, president and chief executive of Abraxas said the deal will enable the company to significantly reduce its leverage and to shift its focus to core assets in an operated portfolio.

“Heading forward we will continue to rationalize our asset base to focus on our core operated properties primarily in the Bakken and Eagle Ford. Moreover, the removal of the non-operated Bakken assets from our portfolio will provide the company with a much more predictable production growth profile and CAPEX schedule,” he said.

E-Spectrum Advisors LLC acted as divestiture agent for Abraxas on the sale.

Abraxas Petroleum Corp. is an independent oil and gas company based in San Antonio. It has operations across the Rocky Mountain, Midcontinent, Permian Basin and onshore Gulf Coast regions of the United States and in the province of Alberta, Canada. Natural Resource Partners LP is a mining company based in Houston.