Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (NYSE: PXD), Linn Energy LLC (NASDAQ: LINE) and LinnCo LLC (NASDAQ: LNCO) collectively swung $585 million worth of deals Aug. 4.

Linn is set to be the dominant producer in the Hugoton Basin with the largest of three deals--a $340 million agreement for Pioneer’s proved reserves, estimated at 340 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe) with 95% proved developed producing. The asset package is about 235,000 net acres, all HBP. It has about 1,200 producing wells.

The Kansas assets currently produce about 40 million cubic feet equivalent per day (MMcfe/d), 60% of which is natural gas with a shallow base decline of about 6%. The assets have a reserve life of roughly 23 years.

“This acquisition further strengthens Linn's significant position in the Hugoton Basin and reinforces our commitment to the previously announced strategic portfolio improvement plan,” said Mark E. Ellis, Linn's chairman, president and CEO.

Adding Linn’s 2012 acquisition from BP Plc (NYSE: BP), a 2014 trade with ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) and the Pioneer deal, Linn will become the largest producer in the field and will have pro forma production in the basin of about 275 MMcfe/d. It also has interests in two natural gas processing plants with capacity of 690 MMcfe/d.

The assets represent all of Pioneer’s interests in the field, including all of its producing oil and gas wells, all of its interest in the Satanta gas processing plant and all other associated infrastructure.

Pioneer’s Hugoton sale is expected to result in a pretax noncash loss of about $20 million, which is expected to be recorded in the third quarter of 2014. The company’s net production from Hugoton averaged about 6,600 barrels oil equivalent per day (boe/d) during the first six months of 2014, consisting of gas and NGL.

The sale will allow Pioneer to strategically redeploy capital to its core, oil-related Spraberry/Wolfcamp assets in the Permian Basin of West Texas “where we are successfully transforming the substantial resource potential we delineated in 2013 into strong production growth,” said Scott D. Sheffield, Pioneer's chairman and CEO.

Pioneer also announced it would sell all of its Barnett Shale assets in North Texas to an undisclosed private company for $155 million cash.

The financial and operating results related to Pioneer’s Barnett Shale activities have been reflected as discontinued operations since the fourth quarter of 2013, when Pioneer announced that it planned to sell these assets. Net production from the Barnett Shale averaged about 10,300 boe/d during the first six months of 2014, consisting of oil, NGL and gas.

“Pioneer has made important strides in accelerating its growth plans,” said Gordon Douthat, senior analyst at Wells Fargo Securities LLC. “As the horizontal Wolfcamp ramps we see growth accelerating into 2014 and horizontal delineation provides a catalyst for shares."

For Linn, its acquisition continues a path toward evolving toward a lower decline asset base, said Ethan Bellamy, senior analyst for Baird Equity Research. Asset sales can provide sufficient funding for Linn’s latest moves, he said.

Linn also announced Aug. 4 it has an agreement to sell its rights to the Woodford and Meramec horizons in the Stack play on about 26,000 undeveloped acres in the Anadarko Basin for roughly $90 million.

“We expect additional asset sales will ultimately be employed to finance the deal on a long-term basis, which likely includes, in our view, the Granite Wash and Cleveland position with 230 MMcfe/d of production which we value at $1.5 to 3.5 billion,” Bellamy said.

Dipping into equity isn’t likely until 2015, although Linn could become more aggressive on acquiring assets, which would require more equity, Bellamy said.

Pro forma for the deal, Linn will be the largest producer in the Hugoton Field, with 1.5 million net acres and 2 Tcfe of proved reserves.

RBC Richardson Barr acted as financial adviser to Linn during this transaction.