Anadarko aims at up to $10B from sales

Ray Tyson

Anadarko Petroleum says it hopes to raise after-tax $7.5 billion to $10 billion from property sales to help pay down more than $20 billion in debt incurred from the acquisitions of exploration and production independents Kerr-McGee and Western Gas Resources.

The company also said during a July 28 conference call with industry analysts that it would open a data room on available properties four to six weeks after it receives oil and gas reserve reports from Kerr-McGee and Western Gas. Anadarko expects the deals to close by year-end, pending shareholder and government approvals.

“As you know, we’ve begun the portfolio restructuring post-acquisition,” said Jim Hackett, Anadarko’s chief executive officer. “The key to the divestiture process is moving quickly.”

Anadarko already has announced its intention to sell its Canadian E&P assets, and has found a buyer for the company’s liquefied natural gas Bear Head project in Nova Scotia. However, the company has said it would not announce unwanted Kerr-McGee and Western Gas properties to be sold until after the merger transactions close.

Anadarko itself maintains a huge acreage position in Alaska, holding title to roughly 570,400 acres of state leases, plus federal leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and has exploration rights to Native lands in the gas-prone Brooks Range foothills area. It also is a minority partner in the ConocoPhillips-operated Alpine field just east of the Kuparuk River field, also operated by ConocoPhillips, a long-time Anadarko partner on Alaska’s North Slope.

Kerr-McGee, a relative newcomer to Alaska with 29,093 state acres under lease, operates the offshore Nikaitchuq unit north of the Kuparuk River field, and appeared close to sanctioning the project for development before Anadarko’s June 23 merger announcement. Western Gas has no Alaska property.