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Chesapeake lines up Evercore to

help offload Eagle Ford assets

TEXAS SHALE producer Chesapeake Energy is reported look to the future, it simply does not compete
to have selected Evercore to help offload its assets today with the exceptional returns, rock and run-
in the Eagle Ford shale play in Texas. way of our gas assets,” Chesapeake’s CEO, Nick
Citing sources familiar with the matter, Dell’Osso, said on the company’s earnings confer-
Bloomberg reported this week that the com- ence call this month. “The Eagle Ford has become
pany was planning to launch an auction in Sep- non-core to our future capital allocation strategy
tember, following the Labor Day holiday. The and we believe that we will be a better company
sources said the Eagle Ford assets could fetch up if we focus all of our resources, both capital and
to $3.25bn. human, on the Marcellus and Haynesville.”
The news comes after Chesapeake said earlier This represents another pivot for Chesapeake,
this month that it would seek to exit the Eagle which started out as a gas producer and shifted
Ford and would scale back activity and invest- its focus to oil in recent years, but struggled with
ment in the play while sharpening its focus on low commodity prices and entered bankruptcy
its Marcellus and Haynesville shale gas positions. protection in 2020. Now, the company is turning
As of August 2, the company was operating five its attention back to gas, having emerged from
rigs in the Eagle Ford, but it said at the time that bankruptcy protection in 2021.
it would reduce this to three by the end of this The company owns roughly 610,000 net
month and drop a further rig in the play by the acres (2,469 square km) in the Eagle Ford, with
end of the year. net production of 88,000 barrels of oil equivalent
“While the Eagle Ford is a strong asset, as we per day (boepd) at the end of the last quarter.™

Riverbend completes $1.8bn sale

of non-operated portfolios

US INVESTMENT firm Riverbend Energy Group the Permian’s Midland sub-basin and mineral
announced on August 22 that it had completed and royalty interests across leading shale plays
a previously announced sale of non-operated respectively.
portfolios on behalf of certain of its affiliates and The company noted it was also pursuing fur-
a number of institutional investors. ther non-operated working interest acquisitions
The sale included Riverbend’s equity interests the Midland, Delaware, and Williston oil basins
in Riverbend Oil & Gas VI, Riverbend Oil & Gas and the Barnett, Fayetteville, Haynesville and
VI-B and Riverbend Oil & Gas VIII for a total Marcellus/Utica natural gas basins. These could
price of $1.8bn based on a May 1, 2022, effec- be acquired by Riverbend Oil & Gas XI or other
tive date. These funds represent a “substantial, successors, it said. Riverbend is also “actively”
diversified asset base” of non-operated interests evaluating energy transition opportunities via
spanning the Bakken/Three Forks, Utica, Fayet- Riverbend Oil & Gas X that it believes would
teville and Haynesville shale plays. As of May 1, complement the hydrocarbon prospects.
the properties had production of around 47,000 Riverbend Oil & Gas X, the firm’s energy tran-
barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) from sition fund, is pursuing a range of investment
over 11,000 wells. opportunities in the energy transition services
Riverbend said it had now monetised three space, with a focus on energy management, solar,
of its five active traditional energy portfolios. storage, wind, electric mobility, hydrogen and car-
It continues to manage and grow the River- bon capture industries. Riverbend announced in
bend Oil & Gas VII and Riverbend Oil & Gas June that it had invested in Harnyss, which special-
IX funds, which target operated properties in ises in solid-state hydrogen storage technologies.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 34 25•August•2022