RIYADH: Harold Hamm, one of the richest and most prominent shale ‘wildcatters’, is finally taking a stake in the Permian Basin, North America’s biggest oil field, for $3.25 billion, Bloomberg reported.
Founded and controlled by the billionaire, the Oklahoma City-based shale driller Continental Resources agreed Wednesday to acquire assets in the Permian Basin from Pioneer Natural Resources.
Continental will pay cash for the assets in the Delaware Basin, a subregion of the massive Permian. Continental shares fell by 8.1 percent in New York Thursday.
Acquiring the drilling rights across 92,000 net acres will allow the shale driller to generate an extra half billion dollars in annual free cash flow next year at current commodity prices, it said in a statement.
Continental Resources may spend $375 million on acquisitions by the end of this year, a regulatory filing revealed late Wednesday.