EQNR in $900MM Bakken Stake Sale

Equinor (NYSE: EQNR) has announced that it has agreed to divest its interests in the Bakken field in the U.S. states of North Dakota and Montana to Grayson Mill Energy for a total consideration of around $900 million.

The transaction covers all of Equinor’s operated and non-operated acreage, totaling 242,000 net acres, and associated midstream assets in the Bakken, Equinor revealed. Entitlement production from these assets in the fourth quarter of last year was 48,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. As part of the deal, all Equinor field employees and a “significant number” of the support teams working on the Bakken assets will have the opportunity to transfer to Grayson Mill Energy, according to Equinor.

The effective date of the transaction is January 1, 2021. Closing is subject to the satisfaction of customary conditions, including authority approvals.

“Equinor is optimizing its oil and gas portfolio to strengthen profitability and make it more robust for the future,” Anders Opedal, the president and chief executive officer of Equinor, said in a company statement.

“By divesting our Bakken position we are realizing proceeds that can be deployed towards more competitive assets in our portfolio, enabling us to deliver increased value creation for our shareholders,” he added.

“Over the past few years, we have improved the safety, cost efficiency and CO₂ intensity of the Bakken assets significantly and I am confident Grayson Mill Energy will continue on this path,” Opedal added.

Al Cook, the executive vice president of development and production international at Equinor, said, “we are taking action to improve the profitability of Equinor’s international oil and gas business”.

“Today’s announcement on the exit of our Bakken assets is an important step in this process. We have worked closely with Grayson Mill Energy to preserve jobs and to ensure the transfer of expertise in the best possible way,” he added.

Equinor holds unconventional oil and gas operated and non-operated positions in the Bakken and Appalachian Basins and has a large portfolio of offshore assets in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, its website shows. The company is also pursuing the development of offshore wind projects on the east coast of the United States.

Equinor has approximately 750 employees across its U.S. headquarters in Houston, satellite offices in Stamford and Washington, and field offices in North Dakota and Ohio.

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