Reliance Industries shale joint venture on the block

Reliance Industries shale joint venture on the block

Pioneer Natural Resources is in advanced talks to sell its Eagle Ford acreage in South Texas to privately owned energy producer Ensign Natural Resources, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

If successful, the sale would achieve Pioneer’s long-stated aim of becoming an energy producer focused solely on the Permian basin of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico, the heart of the US shale revolution.

Ensign, which is backed by P-E firm Warburg Pincus, reportedly would initially pay less than $1 billion for the acreage, which is operated as a joint venture with Reliance Industries, which also is selling its stake.

This price is below the $2 billion valuation analysts had estimated for the position back in February 2018, when Pioneer first announced it wanted to divest. However, the purchase price will be supplemented by a number of earnout clauses based on future production.