Northern Oil and Gas on Thursday announced it will buy further interests in a fleet of oil wells in North Dakota for $154 million, its third significant acquisition in the past eight months.
Northern Oil inks $154M deal for North Dakota oil properties
It's the third acquisition — for a total of $382.2 million — the company has made in the past nine months.
October 7, 2021 at 7:44PM
The seller in the latest deal is Texas-based Comstock Resources, which is controlled by the owner of the Dallas Cowboys football team, Jerry Jones. With the three acquisitions, Northern Oil is spending $382.2 million on new properties.
The Minnetonka-based company also said Thursday it plans to increase its dividend — which was initiated in May — by 33% during the third quarter to 6 cents a common share.
Northern is acquiring further interests in about 400 oil wells, which are operated by multiple companies. Northern holds existing ownership positions in 84% of those.
Production from the new North Dakota properties is 4,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Northern Oil, which invests in leases and drilling projects, has branched out beyond its traditional turf of North Dakota this year.
"This is our third major transaction this year in as many basins," Adam Dirlam, Northern's chief operating officer, said in a statement.
In June, it announced deals totaling $102.2 million in the Permian basin, the nation's largest producer of shale oil. Those deals, which involved multiple sellers, cover 2,900 acres in New Mexico and Texas with expected production of 3,700 barrels of oil equivalent per day during 2021's second half.
In February, Northern unveiled a deal with Reliance Industries for about 62,000 net acres with about 100 net producing wells in the Marcellus natural gas formation in Appalachia, the largest U.S. shale gas field. The price was $126 million.
Northern's stock closed Thursday at $24.62, up 9%. The stock is near its 52-week high of $25.23 and well above its range of $3.50 to $5.91 in October 2020. Oil prices have nearly doubled over the past year.
Northern said it expects to fund its latest North Dakota acquisition with cash, operating free cash flow and borrowings under its revolving credit line.
The Birds Eye plant recruited workers without providing all the job details Minnesota law requires.
