Abraxas Petroleum Selling Eagle Ford Acreage for $20 Million

Abraxas Petroleum Eagle Ford Map
Abraxas Petroleum Eagle Ford Map

Abraxas Petroleum has reached an agreement with an institutional buyer to sell 544 net acres in the Nordheim area for $20 million. The acreage is located in the wet gas and condensate window of the Eagle Ford in DeWitt County. The asset is producing 64 boe/d, with more than half attributable to natural gas and the other half split between NGLs and oil. Abraxas is also reserving rights to the Edwards formation and will not lose potential upside from other developments.

Abraxas also recently agreed to sell an overriding royalty interest in the Alberta Basin Bakken for almost $3 million. I suspect the money will be used to expand development in the company's core areas of the Bakken Shale, Eagle Ford Shale, and Permian Basin. As of 2012, about half of the company's capital budget was allocated to the Bakken.

In the Eagle Ford, Abraxas is expected to continue its focus in the WyoCross Area in McMullen County, where the company has 6,139 gross (999 net) acres. At 80-acre well spacing, the company has 77 gross (19 net) drilling locations. The first well completed in the area, the Cobra 1H, produced over 120,000 boe (95% oil and NGLs) in the first seven months of production.