SM Energy To Buy Midland Basin Firm For About $1 Billion; Sold Some Bakken Assets -- August 8, 2016

SM Energy to acquire Rock Oil Holdings, LLC. Data points:

• acreage in Howard County, TX; west Texas, near Odessa/Midland; I assume this is Permian Basin
• $980 million / 24,783 acres = $40,000 / acre 
• earlier today, another source noted there are about 1,200 DUCs in Texas
• majority of DUCs (271): EOG, BHP Billiton, Anadarko
• EOG acreage concentrated across Karnes and Gonzales counties 
• BHP acreage is near EOG's in Karnes and DeWitt counties
• Anadarko acreage is in the southern portion of Dimmit and LSalle counties
• Howard County: the major city is Big Spring, up the road from Odessa/Midland on the way to Abilene

It should be noted that in the linked article above, it was reported that SM Energy had previously reported selling its producing assets in North Dakota and Montana to undisclosed buyers. From Oil & Gas Investor one week ago:

SM trimmed another 45% off its 2016 capex, down to about $705 million. The budget has roughly equal amounts to SM’s core assets:

• 30% Permian Basin; 
• 30% Eagle Ford;
• 30% Bakken/Three Forks; and
• 10% for other plays.

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From The "For What It's Worth" Department

Op-ed on Saudi's situation, posted a couple of days ago at Naked Capitalism.  Nothing in the linked article that regular readers don't already know, but it's an August, 2016, update. The comments are always entertaining. I find it interesting how quickly folks forget.

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At midday: new highs at 281, including Newfield,  with only one new low on the NYSE.

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Early trading: The market is fairly flat, leaning toward the downside, but even so, there are 226 new highs on the NYSE and zero (0) new lows at the moment. That will change by the end of the day.