Occidental Petroleum Corp. agreed to sell land rights in Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah to Orion Mine Finance for US$1.3 billion, raising much-needed cash for the oil producer as it seeks to pay down a wall of debt due next year.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter and represents more than half of Occidental’s revised asset sales target for this year, the Houston-based company said in a statement. The assets include mineral rights to the world’s largest-known deposit of trona, an ingredient for soda ash used in glass and chemicals.
“This transaction significantly advances the progress against our $2 billion plus divestiture target for 2020,” said President and CEO Vicki Hollub. “We will retain our core oil and gas assets in the Rockies, including the prolific DJ Basin in Colorado and the highly prospective Powder River Basin in Wyoming.”
In this transaction, Orion is acquiring mineral rights to the world’s largest known trona deposit. Trona is a mineral used to make soda ash, the principal ingredient in baking soda, global glass manufacturing, pollution control systems, as well as other critical chemical applications.
Full Content: Bloomberg
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