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Houston-based Oxy looks to keep selling assets to lighten its massive debt load after paying $38 billion to acquire Anadarko Petroleum and also taking on its debt.

Oxy looks to sell some assets in Wyoming, Colorado: Report - oil and gas 360

 

Oxy looks to sell some assets in Wyoming, Colorado: Report

Occidental Petroleum is looking to sell about 200,000 acres of a select position in the DJ Basin that’s mostly in Wyoming, but also extends into Colorado, according to a Reuters report.

Houston-based Oxy looks to keep selling assets to lighten its massive debt load after paying $38 billion to acquire Anadarko Petroleum and also taking on its debt.

This potential sale of non-core assets would bring in well less than $1 billion because it does not include Oxy’s top DJ Basin acreage in Colorado nor its prime position in Wyoming in the Powder River Basin.

Oxy declined comment, saying it doesn’t not discuss rumors about potential asset sales.

Oxy is exploring a number of potential asset sales, especially since its plans to sell a portion of Anadarko’s pipeline business, Western Midstream, are on hold for now because Western’s stock value has plunged of late.

Oxy is of course dealing with its own stock woes. Oxy’s stock has plummeted 40 percent since its bidding war with Chevron for Anadarko first became public in April. And Oxy’s Wall Street value is now below $35 billion – well less than what it paid for Anadarko.

Oxy is working hard to avoid having to reduce its hefty dividend payouts to investors. The fear is that any dividend cuts could trigger a larger sell-off of the stock.

The Houston producer is planning to cut its 2020 capital spending by nearly 40 percent from the combined 2019 spending of Oxy and Anadarko. Oxy reported a nearly $1 billion loss in the third quarter, primarily from merger-related expenses.

The biggest portion of Oxy’s debt reduction is coming from its $8.8 billion sale of Anadarko’s Africa assets to the French energy major Total. But more deals are needed.

Oxy recently agreed to sell its remaining stake in the Houston pipeline firm Plains All American Pipeline for $650 million and, previously, Oxy and the Colombian state oil firm Ecopetrol agreed to a Permian joint venture that would pay Oxy $750 million up front with another $750 million in investments to come.

Oxy also plans to sell the former headquarters of ConocoPhillips that Oxy bought in Houston’s Energy Corridor prior to the Anadarko deal. Oxy also will sell its Permian regional office in Midland, moving its workers into Anadarko’s brand-new Midland campus. Oxy is delaying for now any long-term decision on its corporate headquarters, splitting activities between its current Houston headquarters in Greenway Plaza and the former Anadarko headquarters in The Woodlands.


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