The once lauded $1.4 billion Permian Basin partnership between Devon Energy Corp. (DVN) and Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. continues to unwind, sometimes at as little as 100 acres a time.
Privately held Strand Energy LC of Houston said in an October statement that it acquired 35 wells producing 1,200 barrels of oil equivalent (boe/d) (60% oil) in West Texas from Devon Energy Production Co. LP and Sumitomo subsidiary Summit Discovery Resources III LLC (SDR).
Strand said the leasehold is 9,788 gross acres located in Sterling, Coke, Mitchell, Nolan and Fisher counties, Texas.
While Strand did not release a dollar figure for the deal, Sumitomo said the value of the assets to be transferred is $4.7 million and that it would gain $400,000 on the deal.
Sumitomo owns 30% of the joint venture’s (JV) assets.
The asset transfer was set for September.
Selling the JV’s acreage has been a dive into minutia for the two huge companies. In some cases, sales have been the equivalent of Bill Gates selling cookies door to door.
In September, Sumitomo said it and Devon were selling 300 net acres, wells and related facilities in Mitchell County, Texas, for $400,000 to MTM Petroleum LLC of Midland, Texas. In August, the company sold off 100 net acres in Fisher County for $17,000 to Gunn Oil Co. of Wichita Falls, Texas.
Oklahoma-based Devon and SDR formed their joint venture to develop tight oil in the basin in 2012.
By early 2014, Devon had permitted, drilled and/or completed horizontal Wolfcamp/Cline wells in Sterling, Mitchell, Scurry, Coke, Nolan and Fisher counties, according to IHS.
Sumitomo initially agreed to invest $1.4 billion with Devon, including $400 million cash and a $1 billion drilling carry it provided in exchange for working interest in the acreage. As of September 2014, Sumitomo’s drilling carry balance was $165 million.
But mounting losses of money and confidence caused Sumitomo to pull the plug that September. Sumitomo said the difficulties of extracting oil and gas meant it could not expect production to recover its investment and that through impairments and other factors it has lost at least US$1.4 billion.
The joint venture was to have included at least 500,000 net acres. Sumitomo decided to divest its properties, wells and other facilities in the northern part of the project, where SDR and Devon held about 172,000 net acres. After the divestment, remaining leased properties will be about 19,000 net acres when factoring in lease expirations.
Sumitomo continues to hold interest in 37,000 net acres in the southern Permian.
The losses from the JV investment caused Sumitomo Corp. to declare its first net loss in 16 years.
As of September, Devon has focused its attention primarily on its West Texas activities in the Delaware Basin.
Darren Barbee can be reached at dbarbee@hartenergy.com.
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