Cross Timbers sells $68.3 million of producing properties

Petroleum News Alaska

Cross Timbers Oil Co. of Fort Worth, Texas, said in late February that it has reached agreement to sell two groups of properties, one in Texas and one in New Mexico.

The company said Feb. 25 that it had reached agreement with an unnamed private company for the sale of $43 million in primarily gas-producing properties in Crockett County, Tex.

Feb. 28 Cross Timers said it had “entered into a definite agreement” with Falcon Creek Resources Inc. to sell $25.3 million in oil and gas producing properties located primarily in Lea County, N.M. Falcon Creek is a privately held Denver-based company.

Cross Timbers said that daily production from the Crockett County properties averages 9.5 million cubic feet of gas and 160 barrels of oil. The property to be sold to Falcon Creek currently averages 3.6 million cubic feet of gas and 400 barrels of oil. Both sales are expected to close at the end of March, with an effective date of April 1, and subject to typical purchase price adjustments.

Bob Simpson, Cross Timbers’ chairman and CEO, said the Crockett County sale “is the first transaction related to our planned property sales.”

The Falcon Creek sale, he said, “will complete about 75 percent of our planned property dispositions for this year. We expect the balance to be completed during the second quarter.”

The company also said that its board of directors has authorized the repurchase of as many as 2.5 million shares of the company’s common stock, about 5 percent of shares outstanding.

A 3 million share repurchase announced in August 1998 has been completed.

The company said that shares under the new authorization will be repurchased from time to time in open-market or negotiated transactions.

“We believe that our common stock currently represents an extraordinary value,” Simpson said.

Cross Timbers’ properties are concentrated in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Wyoming and Alaska.