NEWS BULLETIN

April 09, 2012 --- Vol. 18, No. 28April 2012

Marathon sells Cook Inlet assets to Hilcorp

Marathon Oil Corp. announced today that it has agreed to the sale of all of its Alaska assets to Hilcorp Alaska. Marathon is a major natural gas producer in Alaska’s Cook Inlet basin and has been operating in the state since the 1950s. Last year Hilcorp purchased all of Chevron’s Cook Inlet assets.

The sale results from a Marathon corporate strategy to focus on oil rather than natural gas production, Wade Hutchings, Marathon’s Alaska asset team manager, told Petroleum News today.

“The principal driver in our desire to sell these assets at this point is really driven by that forward strategy, which today for the company is very much focused on liquids-rich resource plays,” Hutchings said, adding that Marathon has no substantive issue with the current regulatory or fiscal situation for the Cook Inlet oil and gas industry.

“With an effective date of Jan. 1, 2012, the sale includes 17 million barrels of oil equivalent of net proved reserves across 10 fields in the Cook Inlet, as well as natural gas storage, and interests in natural gas pipeline transmission systems,” Marathon said in a press release issued today. “In 2011 net production averaged approximately 93 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and 112 barrels of oil per day. Additionally, Marathon Oil had approximately 12.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas in storage at the end of 2011.”

Hutchings said that the sale will likely close in the fall and that he anticipates Hilcorp retaining most of Marathon’s Alaska personnel.

The financial terms of the sale have not been disclosed.

—Alan Bailey

See story in April 15 issue, available online at 11 a.m., Friday, April 13, at www.PetroleumNews.com


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