SM Energy Concludes Divestment of Non-Core Oil & Gas Acres

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SM Energy Company SM concluded the divestment of assets in Upton County and remaining Williston Basin acres. The net proceeds from the transaction amounted to $249.2 million.

The divested properties in the Williston Basin in Divide County comprise roughly 119,400 net acres. At the end of 2017, the net proved oil and natural gas reserves from the resources were estimated at 28.8 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBoe). From the Divide County assets, SM Energy’s net daily production for December 2017 was recorded at 6,100 barrels of oil equivalent (Boe).

The Upton County properties, spread over 5,400 net acres, includes third-party assets where the company had 60% working interest. The daily net output through December 2017 from the third-party acres were reported at roughly 1,025 Boe.

SM Energy didn’t disclose the buyer of the properties and concluded the divestment of both the properties in May 2018. The move is in line with the company’s plan to sale non-core resources. The company announced its intention of using the proceeds from the sale to lower outstanding debt and for other corporate activities.

Headquartered in Denver, CO, SM Energy is an oil and gas explorer, which focuses on North American onshore resources. Over the past year, the stock has rallied 55.7%, outperforming the industry’s 12.4% rise.

SM Energy currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), which indicates that it will perform on par with the broader U.S. equity market over the next one to three months.

A few better-ranked players in the energy sector are BP plc BP, Occidental Petroleum Corp. OXY and WildHorse Resource Development Corp. WRD. All the stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

BP managed to beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters.

Occidental Petroleum is expected to record earnings growth of 333.7% in 2018.

WildHorse is likely to see year-over-year earnings growth of 288.4% in 2018.

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