Chesapeake to shed Haynesville Asset

U.S. natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corp said it would sell a part of its acreage in the Haynesville Shale area for $450 million to a private company.

Chesapeake shares were up more than 5 percent in premarket trading on Monday.

The company said the asset, which is located in northern Louisiana, includes about 78,000 net acres, 40,000 of which is core acreage. The sale also includes 250 wells with a current net production of about 30 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake also said that including this transaction, it has reached about $2 billion in gross proceeds from divestitures either signed or closed in 2016, excluding certain volumetric production payment repurchase transactions.

The company, which has been trying to reduce its crippling debt load of nearly $9 billion, expects the transaction to close in the first quarter of 2017.

Chesapeake in November said it planned to sell more assets this year, including about 126,000 net acres in the Haynesville Shale field in Louisiana.

Reporting by Vishaka George