☰

Empresas y finanzas

Exxon to pay $1.6 billion, exchange assets for Denbury's Bakken fields


    (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp said it would buy Denbury Resources Inc's fields in the Bakken shale in North Dakota and Montana for $1.6 billion in cash and in exchange for interests in some other fields to raise its acreage in the oil-rich area by 50 percent.

    Assets in Bakken, where output is expected to double to about 1.2 million barrels per day by 2015, are usually cheaper than those in other oil shales as poor infrastructure makes it difficult to transport crude to major markets on the Gulf coast.

    The properties being bought consist of about 196,000 net acres, with expected production of more than 15,000 oil equivalent barrels per day in the second half of this year, Exxon said.

    The acquisition will increase Exxon's holdings in the Bakken region to nearly 600,000 acres.

    Denbury said it plans to use part of the proceeds to explore buying oil fields in the Gulf Coast or Rocky Mountain regions.

    It will receive Exxon's operating interests in Webster Field in Texas and Hartzog Draw Field in Wyoming.

    (Reporting by Krishna N. Das in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)