(Refiles to remove extraneous word “said” in fourth paragraph) Dec 20 (Reuters) - Cabot Oil & Gas Corp said on Wednesday it would sell its Eagle Ford Shale assets to a unit of Venado Oil & Gas LLC for $765 million as the oil and gas producer tries to cut down costs. The asset sale includes 74,500 net acres of shale field, which had produced 15,656 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the third quarter, the company said. U.S. shale producers have been selling off assets in Eagle Ford and North Dakota’s Bakken basins to develop projects in the liquids-rich Permian basin, which has lower break-even costs. “In a higher oil price environment, the Eagle Ford Shale assets were a nice complement to our Marcellus Shale position and provided capital allocation optionality,” said Chief Executive Dan Dingus, explaining the rationale of the sale. Oil and gas producers are also looking to spend within their means as crude prices remain between $60 and $70 per barrel, more than 43 percent lower than the 2014 price. Cabot said it would record a one-time charge of $270 million to $280 million on the Eagle Ford sale in the fourth quarter. Separately, the company also announced the sale of its remaining East Texas assets to an undisclosed buyer. The Eagle Ford sale is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018. Reporting by Ahmed Farhatha in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur
Cabot Oil & Gas said it would sell its Eagle Ford assets to a unit of Venado Oil & Gas for $765m to focus on its Permian acreage in a bid to increase shareholder returns. The sale includes 15,656 barrels of shale, which had produced 74,500 net acres of oil equivalent per day in the third quarter . “In a higher oil price environment, the Eagle Ford Shale assets were a nice complement to our Marcellus Shale position and provided capital allocation optionality,” said CEO Ahmed Farhatha . Separately, Cabot said it sold its remaining U.S. assets to an undisclosed buyer.