Alaska News

Marathon Oil sells off $1.1 billion in assets

Marathon Oil has reached agreements for divestitures of around $1.1 billion so far in 2012, the Wall Street Journal reports.

This spring, Marathon Oil announced it was selling substantially all of its Alaska assets to Hilcorp Energy's Alaska subsidiary, including 17 million barrels of oil equivalent of net proved reserves across 10 fields in Cook Inlet, plus natural gas storage and interests in natural gas pipeline transmission systems. The agreement was reached Jan. 1, 2012, but the financial terms weren't disclosed until Wednesday, when Marathon estimated the deal at $375 million.

Marathon's Alaska manager told the Associated Press that the decision to sell is based on a strategic focus on unconventional U.S. oil shales such as Eagle Ford in Texas, and Bakken in North Dakota.

For this year, the company has completed $700 million of the $1.2 billion in agreed-upon divestitures, defined as the selling off of investments or subsidiary business interests. The company aims to sell half of its $3 billion in assets under a program that began last year, and is expected to continue through 2013.

Read more from the Wall Street Journal.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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