Spanish energy major Repsol could be the next company involved in the mergers and acquisitions wave in the U.S. shale patch as it considers selling up to a 49% interest in its assets in the Eagle Ford play in South Texas, Reuters reported on Friday, citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the talks.
Repsol, which has acquired Eagle Ford assets from Equinor and Inpex in recent years, operates wells that produce around 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day (boed) in the shale play.
Now the company is looking to divest a minority stake, up to 49%, in its Eagle Ford assets to bring in a non-operating partner or partners, according to Reuters' sources. A deal could value Repsol's assets in the Eagle Ford at up to $2 billion, the sources said.
At any rate, Repsol plans to keep a majority stake in the assets and continue to be the operator.
There is no guarantee that a transaction will be reached, according to Reuters' sources.
A deal for a minority stake sale will add to the numerous transactions announced in the U.S. shale sector in recent months, including in the Eagle Ford.
Last month, Crescent Energy said it would buy SilverBow Resources in a deal valued at $2.1 billion to create a major player in the Eagle Ford formation.
The ConocoPhillips-Marathon Oil deal will also feature Eagle Ford assets.
These could even come under closer-than-usual scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which will be reviewing closely the whole deal, considering the increased regulatory scrutiny for oil and gas transactions and Conoco's existing scale, said Andrew Dittmar, a Director on the Enverus Intelligence team.
Enverus Intelligence Research (EIR) said earlier this year that after exhausting the best of the Permian acquisition targets, potential buyers are likely to be looking beyond the Permian, due to higher fragmentation in other plays and lower prices. The Eagle Ford and the SCOOP/STACK could be the next major shale regions for M&As, according to Enverus.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More
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