Saturday, August 18, 2018

Contributor At Seeking Alpha Suggests Oasis Was The Seller In The Whiting "Bolt-On" Acquisition -- August 18, 2018

At the sidebar at the right, "Deals in the Bakken," about one-third of the way down, the most recent deal posted was the "Whiting bolt-on": 55,000 acres for $130 million.

Today, Don found an article completing the story. Apparently Oasis was the seller. Over at SeekingAlpha:
  • Whiting Petroleum acquired nearly 55,000 net acres in the Williston Basin for $130 million
  • this appears to be Oasis's Foreman Butte position, which it had categorized as lower-quality acreage
  • Whiting believes that it can achieve stronger results with its Generation 4.0 completions
  • the new acreage is on trend with Whiting's strong performing Mallow 34-8H well, although that well is located a fair bit to the east of the acquisition
  • Whiting is able to take a relatively low priced risk due to its improved financial position and cessation of Redtail development spending
I would not have guessed. I did not think Oasis owned that much acreage in this area.

Oasis, August, 2018, corporate presentation --
  • slide 4: net acres in the Williston Basin -- 503,000 net acres
  • see note below: at end of 2017: 520,000 net acres
  • so, something doesn't add up
  • selling 55,000 net acres should have put their total acreage well bellow 500,000
  • perhaps the deal has not closed yet and Oasis is not yet reporting it?
From "Bakken operators":
From Whiting's presentation, the "bolt-on":
Bolt-on appears to be mostly Tier 2 (by 2018 norms) but some Tier 1.

 Now compare Oasis acreage in the Williston Basin:


The SeekingAlpha contributor references this Oasis deal earlier in the year:  $283 million / 65,000 acres = $4,500 / acre.
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