BlackBrush Oil & Gas explores south Texas asset sale -sources

Bain Capital Specialty Finance

29/06/2022 20:28

By David French and Shariq Khan
    June 29 (Reuters) - BlackBrush Oil and Gas has placed some
of its assets in south Texas for sale, seizing on a surge in
energy prices, people familiar with the matter said on
Wednesday.
    The San Antonio, Texas-based company, in which Bain Capital
Specialty Finance  BCSF.N  is a major owner, has hired an
investment bank to run an auction for more than 30,000 net acres
(12,140 hectares) in the Eagle Ford shale formation, which
produce around 11,800 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
    The baseline valuation of the asset's production would be
around $430 million, although BlackBrush may seek a sale price
in the "high hundreds of millions of dollars" to account for
substantial undeveloped acreage in the area, the sources said. 
    The sources cautioned the effort could end without a deal
and asked not to be identified because the matter is
confidential. 
    BlackBrush did not respond to a comment request. Bain
declined to comment.
    BlackBrush was hit in 2020 by a collapse in energy prices as
demand was destroyed by the COVID-19 pandemic, agreeing an
out-of-court debt restructuring with its creditors in September
of that year. Energy prices have rallied since then, hitting
multi-year highs in recent weeks, as Russia's invasion of
Ukraine disrupts oil and gas supplies.
    Were it to sell the marketed south Texas assets, BlackBrush
would retain further presence in the shale basin. Currently, the
company has 360,000 gross acres in the Eagle Ford, according to
its website.

 (Reporting by David French in New York and Shariq Khan in
Bengaluru
Editing by Marguerita Choy)
 ((davidj.french@thomsonreuters.com;))