Black Hills Corp. announced that its oil and gas subsidiary, Black Hills Exploration & Production Inc., signed a definitive agreement to sell about 85 percent of its Bakken and Three Forks shale assets in the Williston Basin of North Dakota for about $243 million, subject to pre-closing and post-closing adjustments.
The deal offers more money for 13 percent of Black Hills proved reserves than Wall Street analysts had assigned for the value of all of Black Hills' oil and gas reserves. The company's stock was up 42.50, 8 percent, at $33.51 Friday, and was one of the New York Stock Exchange's biggest gainers. Gabelli also upgraded shares of the company from a hold to a buy rating.
Black Hills' sale was part of a larger deal, in which QEP Resources Inc., Denver, said its QEP Energy unit will buy Williston basin properties from Black Hills and others for $1.38 billion. The properties are in Williams and McKenzie counties of North Dakota.
The sale includes all of Black Hills' interests in Williston Basin assets owned jointly with Helis Oil & Gas and others, including about 73 wells and 28,000 net lease acres. As of the end of the second quarter, net year-to-date production from those properties totaled about 149,000 barrels of oil and 171,000 million cubic feet of natural gas. Total proved reserves for these properties, as of Dec. 31, were 2.2 million barrels of oil and 3.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas. The properties represent about 15 percent of Black Hills' oil and gas production for the first six months of 2012 and 13 percent of Black Hills' year-end 2011 proved reserves.
David R. Emery, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Black Hills Corp., said in a news release: "This sale demonstrates the substantial value of our oil and gas business, and the ability of our oil and gas team to identify and develop quality assets. The $243 million sales price for only 13 percent of our proved reserves exceeds the value currently assigned to our entire oil and gas business by (Wall Street.)"
Black Hills Energy, a regulated subsidiary of Black Hills Corp., serves nearly 200,000 customers with natural gas in eastern Nebraska. More than half are in Lincoln. Black Hills Corp. serves 765,000 natural gas and electric utility customers in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.
