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
