Houston, Texas-based E&P company Noble Energy has closed its sale of Gulf of Mexico assets to fellow Houston-based Fieldwood Energy earlier than expected.
Under the deal Fieldwood acquires all of Noble’s deep-water oil and gas producing properties and undeveloped acreages in the Gulf.
Early closure of the transaction was made possible because Fieldwood, an oil and gas operator specializing in the Gulf of Mexico, was able to come up with an innovative restructuring and recapitalization plan, which was confirmed just last week by the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Under that prepackaged plan, Fieldwood was able to raise $525 million of capital, some of which was used to finance the Noble purchase. Fieldwood also reduced its debts by $1.6 billion and erased $134 million in annual interest.
The Noble-Fieldwood deal has an effective transaction date of 1 January, 2018.
