Northern Oil and Gas will buy W Energy Partners

July 31, 2018 at 11:52PM

Northern Oil and Gas will buy an interest in 10,600 net acres in North Dakota's Williston Basin for $100 million, its largest acquisition.

The Minnetonka-based company announced Tuesday that it has agreed to buy the oil-producing assets from W Energy Partners, which is owned by the New York-based private-equity outfit Crestview Partners. The deal's terms also include 56.37 million shares of Northern Oil stock.

The W Energy properties represent about 6,750 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day of production, a figure encompassing both oil and natural gas. The deal will be meaningfully accretive on a cash-flow and earnings basis upon closing, Northern Oil said.

The company also announced Tuesday that its preliminary second-quarter average production will be more than 21,000 BOE, substantially above consensus estimates by stock analysts.

Northern Oil's stock on Tuesday rose 30 cents or nearly 9 percent, closing at $3.72.

Northern Oil invests in leases and drilling projects in North Dakota.

"The W Energy acquisition will add robust drilling inventory under some of the best acreage in the Williston Basin," Michael Reger, Northern's president, said in a news release.

The W Energy deal marks the second acquisition that Northern Oil has unveiled in the past two weeks.

The company also agreed to pay $68.4 million and 25.75 million shares of Northern Oil stock for producing wells owned by Pivotal Petroleum Partners, a unit of Dallas-based Tailwater Capital. Those assets are currently producing over 4,100 BOE per day.

Mike Hughlett • 612-673-7003

about the writer

about the writer

Mike Hughlett

Reporter

Mike Hughlett covers energy and other topics for the Minnesota Star Tribune, where he has worked since 2010. Before that he was a reporter at newspapers in Chicago, St. Paul, New Orleans and Duluth.

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