Noble To Sell Kansas Acreage

Purchase of 250 producing wells on 14,000 net acres in Kansas.

Privately-held Citation Oil & Gas Corp. plans to buy Noble Energy Inc.’s (NYSE: NBL) interest in 250 producing wells on 14,000 net acres in Kansas for $140 million.

The deal is expected to close in September and would include net production of about 1,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe) and net proved reserves of about 7 million boe. Production is almost entirely crude.

David L. Stover, Noble Energy's president and COO, says, "The Kansas property divestiture is our third announced sale this quarter and completes the first phase of our onshore non-core divestment plan. These transactions, along with the sales of our Dumbarton and Lochranza assets in the North Sea, are expected to generate approximately $1.1 billion of after-tax proceeds by the end of the third quarter.’’

“The next phase of our non-core divestment program, continuing into 2013, involves small asset packages in the Mid-continent, Gulf Coast, San Juan, and Ark-La-Tex areas and our remaining assets in the North Sea."

Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. advised Noble Energy on the transaction. Houston-based Noble Energy is an independent upstream oil & gas company with core operations onshore in the U.S., primarily in the DJ Basin and Marcellus Shale, in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, offshore Eastern Mediterranean, and offshore West Africa.