By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Exxon Mobil stock (NYSE:XOM) edged higher in Wednesday’s premarket trading as the company put some of its shale assets in Ohio on the block.
According to Reuters, the sale, part of the company’s ongoing divestiture of U.S. assets, could value the assets at around $200 million based on current natural gas prices and existing production from the wells. The properties stretch across 27,000 acres in the state’s Appalachian basin, the agency said.
The oil giant is marketing 61 wells that last year produced around 81 million cubic feet per day equivalent of natural gas, according to the report. The sale also includes another 274 wells operated by other companies.
No agreement has been reached nor has any buyer been identified yet while operations continue, Reuters said.
The company three years ago set a goal of raising $15 billion from asset sales, and last year accelerated its efforts as energy prices recovered from the pandemic. Many of these assets were bought in 2010 at the time of a shale boom that eventually led to oversupply of gas and record-low prices.
In 2020, Exxon marked down the value of its U.S. oil and gas holdings by over $17 billion.