Noble Energy Selling Gulf Assets

(RTTNews) - Noble Energy Inc. (NBL) Thursday said it has agreed to sell its deepwater Gulf of Mexico assets to Fieldwood Energy LLC for a total value of $710 million.

CEO David Stover said, "While continuing to deliver outstanding performance and execution across the business, we have strategically repositioned our portfolio over the last couple of years. The sale of our Gulf of Mexico business represents the last major step in our portfolio transformation. This has been done to focus our go-forward efforts on those assets that will rapidly grow our cash flows and margins, primarily the U.S. onshore business and the Eastern Mediterranean."

Noble has authorized a $750 million share repurchase program. The oil and gas exploration and production company will use the proceeds of sale to partly finance the share buyback program that will be executed between 2018 and 2020.

Cash proceeds included in the transaction total $480 million, and Fieldwood will assume all abandonment obligations associated with the properties, which the Company recorded at a book value of approximately $230 million as of December 31, 2017, Noble said in a statement.