BHP to sell $10.8 billion worth of US shale assets

BP on Friday announced a “transformational deal” to acquire Petrohawk Energy Corporation, a BHP subsidiary in the USA, for USD 10.5 billion.

The assets include acreage in the Permian-Delaware, Eagle Ford and Haynesville basins with current total output of 190,000 boepd.

“We’ve just got access to some of the best acreage in some of the best basins in the onshore US, and I think we have one of the best teams in the industry to work it,” said Bernard Looney, BP’s CEO for upstream in a statement.

In a separate release, BHP said it had sold a further USD 300 million worth of Fayetteville assets to Merit Energy Company. The company expects to book an impairment charge of about USD 2.8 billion in 2018 as a result of the sales.

“The sale of our onshore US assets is consistent with our long-term plan to continue to simplify and strengthen our portfolio to generate shareholder value and returns for decades to come,” said BHP CEO Andrew Mackenzie.