If nothing else, Apache Corp.'s 15-month world selling tour has shown that the company isn't sentimental about its holdings. Executives have turned and burned through the asset column in the corporate balance sheet.
But it’s hard not to consider the company’s previous spending spree, just a few years ago, as somewhat scattershot in retrospect. Apache bought planet-wide only to essentially return most of the merchandise.
In June 2010, for instance, Apache completed a $1.05-billion deal for Devon Energy’s Gulf of Mexico (GoM) Shelf assets, adding to its already formidable presence in the Gulf. In September 2013, Apache closed the sale of its GoM assets to Fieldwood Energy LLC for $3.75 billion in cash. Apache retained 50% ownership interest in exploration blocks.
In April 2006, the company bought additional acreage in Argentina from Pioneer Natural Resources. But in March 12, 2014, the Argentina operations and property were jettisoned for $850 million.
Likewise, assets in Canada have been bought and sold, as has a chunk of Egypt. By September, Apache’s goal to rid itself of
$4 billion in assets had stretched to more than $7 billion worth of holdings that apparently weren’t mission critical.
At a February investor presentation, G. Steven Farris, Apache’s chairman and CEO, declared the divestments were nearly at an end. “We’re essentially done,” he said.
For all the selling, a $15-billion tab is looming for the company at the Kitimat LNG project in British Columbia.
The Kitimat LNG project started as a marvelous discovery in 2012. Apache had found the Liard Basin and 50 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas.
In December 2012, the company teamed up with Chevron Canada to work on the Kitimat project. Now Apache is pushing to sell a significant portion of its 50% stake.
Farris said Apache never set out to be in the LNG business and the company clearly cannot afford its share of the project.
Kitimat is no ordinary expense. This year, it will cost Apache $1 billion in capital. In years to come, capex will reach $15 billion.
“Our partners know this and we know this. We’re going to make sure that doesn’t choke us,” Farris said.
Bill Herbert, managing director and co-head of securities for Simmons, said the biggest catalyst for the company is to sell down its interest from 50% to in the neigh- borhood of 20%.
Farris has said the company may be close to a deal with a partner.
Bob Brackett, senior analyst for Bernstein Research, said that Apache’s most likely partner is Sinopec, although that company is reportedly also in talks with Petronas for a different Canadian LNG project. “It’s critical that Apache is able to reduce its stake,” he said.
Once Kitimat is dealt with, it will be time to execute.
Brackett said the company has attractive assets and relatively high price to cash flow per barrel. “We continue to rate [it] Outperform, and also continue to closely monitor its LNG developments,” he said.
Apache’s goal to refocus on its onshore liquids assets in North America, particularly areas such as the Permian Basin, has seen mixed results. The strategy has swollen the company’s North America-based onshore assets to 60% in 2013 from 34% in 2009. North America liquids production grew by 34% in 2013.
Apache has paid down $2.6 billion in debt and repurchased $1 billion in common shares in 2013.
However, the company has shrunk estimated production to 537,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in 2014, com- pared to 700,000 boe/d in 2013. Its February guidance of 5% to 8% production growth was underwhelming, and investors balked.
Brackett said Bernstein has modeled Apache’s onshore production growth at 10% or more.
“We think that they can grow well above 20% in both their Permian and Central plays given the rig and well plans for 2014,” he said.
That hasn’t, of course, stopped speculation that the company needed to sell because it got into areas it wasn’t ready to commit to. Or even that management might be positioning for a sale.
Will the divestitures come back to hurt the company? Maybe.
In fourth-quarter 2013, Apache saw its U.S. crude realizations fall short of fourth-quarter 2013 estimates by Wells Fargo Securities. The culprit, according to Wells Fargo’s David Tameron, was the Gulf Shelf divestiture. In 2010, the Shelf made up 17% of Apache’s production.
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