Monday, September 15, 2025

Chord Swallows Another "Whale" In The Bakken -- September 15, 2025

Locator: 49118B.

Bakken deals are tracked in sidebar at the right.

From X.

Also from x:

Chord Energy:

  • began with merging Oasis with Whiting;
  • then added Enerplus;
  • now adds XTO's / XOM's assets in the Bakken.

  • doing the math:
  • $550 million / 9,000 boepd = $60,000 per flowing boe -- on the high side 
  • $550 million / 48,000 net acres = $11,500 / acre -- on the high side

Graphic of XTO's assets in the Bakken:

Link also at Reuters, not yet behind a paywall.

Smaller, but similar, deal several years ago..

From Oil & Gas Journal, July 1, 2008, link here.

RBN Energy, May 24, 2024, link here.

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Previously Published

RBN Energy: there's a lot more happening in the Bakken than you might think. Archived.

On the surface, the Bakken story in the mid-2020s may seem as boring as dirt. The boom times of 2009-14 and 2017-19 are ancient history. Crude oil production has been rangebound near 1.2 MMb/d — well below its peak five years ago. And that output has been getting gassier over time, creating natural gas and NGL takeaway constraints that have put a lid on oil production growth. But don’t buy into the view that the Bakken is yesterday’s news. Beneath the surface (sometimes literally), the U.S.’s second-largest crude oil production area is undergoing a major transformation that includes E&P consolidation, production (and producers) going private, the drilling of 3- and (soon) 4-mile laterals, novel efforts to eliminate flaring, and even a producer-led push for CO2-based enhanced oil recovery (EOR). As we’ll discuss in today’s RBN blog, these changes and others may well breathe new life into the Bakken and significantly improve the environmental profile of the hydrocarbons produced there. 

Original Post
February 21, 2024

Chord - Enerplus Merger PowerPoint.

Link here.

Timeline:

  • February 9, 2024:

  • 9:00 a.m., February 21, 2024: I added a large buy to my existing position of CHRD.

  • 6:26 p.m February 21, 2024: whoo-hoo! Opening a bottle of champagne.

  • 6:27 p.m. February 21, 2024: two tickers --

Financials:

From Chord's website:

From the blog, May 22, 2024;

Locator: 44726CHORD_XTO. 

Full story here (and re-posted below).

Previously posted. 

Locator: 44691B. 

Chord Energy: to bulk up in the Bakken, divest non-core, Hart Energy.  Chord Energy website. A reminder: Chord Energy: Whiting + Oasis.

Is this new or is this an old news story? One never knows with Hart Energy.

Let's see if we can find any other source. I can't find anything else. I haven't checked Chord's website yet.

Link here.


From the link:

Chord Energy Corp. has strengthened its position in the Williston Basin with an agreement to acquire core acreage from Exxon Mobil Corp. subsidiary XTO Energy Inc. and affiliates for $375 million cash.
The acquisition was announced May 22, 2023, as Chord sheds non-ore acreage outside the basin.

Disclaimer: I am building a position in Chord, but not increasing my overall fossil fuel position. I am selling other energy assets to pay for additional investments in Chord.

Abbreviated disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. Full disclaimer at tabbed link.

All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them.  

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Updated Here

Hart Energy tweeted this yesterday (May 22, 2023). Now, more background, from stories posted May 23, 2023.

From EnergyIntel.com.

Bottom line:

  • only 20% of Exxon Mobil's Bakken assets in the deal
  • $375 million

From WorldOil.com.

  • Chord to pay with cash on hand
  • Chord had $592 million in cash on March 31, 2023

From okenergytoday.com.

  • 62,000 acres
  • 77% of this acreage is undeveloped

Back-of-the-envelope:

  • $375 million / 62,000 acres = $6,000 / acre
  • $375 million / 6,000 boed = $62,500 / boepd flowing
  • 20% of what = 62,000 acres; XTO acreage before sale: 310,000 acres

One wonders if most of the acreage in the deal was "outside" the reservation? 

Zacks is best link right now.

  • the acquisition allows Chord Energy to expand six of its pre-acquisitiono drilling spacing units from two miles to three miles
  • acreage, fully held by production
  • Chord estimates: 123 net 10,000-feet equivalent locations
  • low base decline rate of 23%
  • oil: 62% of net production from acquired assets

From this blog, but I quit following XTO almost ten years ago:


XOM (XTO)

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