Six months after closing its $1.9 billion acquisition in the Stack play, Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN) said its divestiture campaign is done, after signing a definitive agreement to sell its Access Pipeline interests.

Devon said July 14 that it would sell its 50% stake in the pipeline to Wolf Midstream Inc., a portfolio company of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for about US$1.1 billion (CA$1.4 billion). The sale brings Devon’s total divestments to $3.2 billion, surpassing the company’s guidance of US$2 billion to US$3 billion.

The value of the pipeline sale beat Wall Street expectations by about US$100 million.

Access provides service to Devon’s thermal heavy oil operations in the Athabasca oil sands in Canada. The agreement with Wolf includes a potential annualized CA$150 million payment with the sanctioning and development of a new thermal oil project on Devon’s Pike lease in Alberta, Canada.

“The divestiture proceeds significantly strengthen our investment-grade balance sheet and position us to further accelerate investment in our best-in-class U.S. resource plays, led by the Stack and Delaware Basin,” Dave Hager, president and CEO, said.

Devon embarked on its selling spree after its Stack acquisition from Felix Energy. Devon plans to allocate one-third of its divestiture proceeds to reinvestment in the business, with the remaining amount to be used for paying debt, said Charles Robertson II, analyst at Cowen and Co. At the end of first-quarter 2016, Devon owed US$12.5 billion. The company reported liquidity of US$4.6 billion.

The sale agreement makes Devon an Access customer for the next 25 years, and Devon said it expects lease operating expense at its heavy oil Jackfish complex to increase by about US$100 million on an annualized basis.

“A market-based toll will be applied to production from Devon’s three Jackfish projects,” Robertson said. “The toll is about $2.50/bbl [per barrel] on bitumen and will be paid on a blended barrel, including diluent. The Access Pipeline toll could be reduced by as much as 30% with the development of new thermal oil projects in the future.”

Devon said in February its upstream divestitures would include up to 80,000 boe/dof production from properties in the Midland Basin, East Texas and Mid-Continent region but the company appears to have divested less than that.

Phillips Johnston, an analyst at Capital One Securities, said the Access deal is “modestly positive” since it alleviates worries that the sale had been delayed—an announcement had been expected in the first half of 2016.

The sale also eases Devon’s 2017 and 2018 leverage ratios, assuming Devon pays a 10% tax on the cash proceeds.

“The sale is accretive to our NAV [net asset value] estimate by $1, bringing it to $41,” Johnston said. “We believe there is a good chance that DVN further accelerates activity in the Stack and Delaware Basin later this year beyond the three incremental rigs that management announced in mid-June.”

Wells Fargo Securities models Devon’s leverage 0.5x lower at the end of 2016, said analyst David Tameron.

Though the Access deal was highly anticipated, Tameron said Devon “still gets credit for the ability to execute, along with balance sheet improvement. With the balance sheet repaired, investors’ focus likely turns to operations; and continued execution should drive share outperformance.”

Devon’s Access Pipeline deal is expected to close in third-quarter 2016, the company said. Bennett Jones LLP acted as legal adviser to Devon.

Darren Barbee can be reached at dbarbee@hartenergy.com.