Houston-based Marathon Oil Corporation announced in June of 2014 that it is selling its Norway business for $2.7 billion to re-focus capital investments in the Eagle Ford Shale and other U.S. domestic assets.
The buyer, Norwegian-based Det Norske Oljeselskap ASA, will take on ~700-million of Marathon's debt from the deal, leaving Marathon with approximately $2.1 billion in proceeds at closing.
According to Marathon CEO Lee M. Tillman, the company is focused on simplifying and concentrating its business, with a primary focus on its U.S. resource plays, including the Eagle Ford. This divestiture is one of several deals Marathon has made in the past few years. Since 2011, the company has divested $6.2 billion in assets.
“Marathon Oil has a deep inventory across three high-quality U.S. resource plays with expanding opportunities to further accelerate activity. Such organic growth will be our first priority for additional capital allocation.”
Currently, Marathon has 211,000 net Eagle Ford acres. During the first-quarter of 2014, the company averaged 96,000 net boe/d, which was an increase of 7% over the previous quarter.
Read more at MarathonOil.com