The Denver Business Journal reports Anschutz sold his Marcellus and Bakken oil and natural gas shale holdings for $3 billion to an unidentified buyer. That story is dated today, October 21, 2010. The DBJ references the Forbes issue hitting newsstands now, with a cover date of November 8, 2010, in which the magazine profiles Anschutz.
The first paragraph of the Forbes story:
Philip Anschutz has reason to shout. His holding company has just sold its oil and gas fields in the Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania and the Bakken Shale of North Dakota for roughly $3 billion--the biggest payday of his life.Meanwhile, an earlier story at Forbes regarding this story is dated October 5, 2010. In that story, Anschutz' sale of the Marcellus shale was noted but stated the Bakken shale holdings had not yet been sold. In that article, the author low-balled the Marcellus deal at $2 billion but could be higher.
Anschutz had some very, very good acreage in the Fayette and the Cabernet oil fields. My database shows that Anschutz was issued six permits in 2008; 24 in 2009; and, 39 permits in 2010. According to the NDIC website, Anschutz was issued 106 permits (if I counted correctly), many of them going back to the beginning of the current boom. There are a few permits that go back to the 90's -- one each in 1990, 1996, and 1998, for example (again, that was a quick look and I could have missed some). Many of those early wells were wildcats and dry.
The Anschutz story has always fascinated me and one can find much more about Anschutz on this site by using search applications (at the blogsite) including the "bubble cloud" at the very bottom of the blog.
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My Prayer, The Platters
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Other Bakken-related blogs also have very interesting information about Anschutz action in the Bakken, particularly in the Cabernet/Fayette oil fields.
The guessing game begins: who bought Anschutz' holdings in the Bakken. If it was a single buyer of both the Marcellus and the Bakken, I would start with EOG, XOM (XTO), COP (BR), Chesapeake. If it was one of the majors (XOM or COP) this will be a huge story. But if so, why is the buyer still unidentified? These are all public companies. Among private companies, is Slawson big enough to have been able to do this? Wouldn't it be interesting if a Chinese company was the buyer? See comments below.
