Hilcorp Adds to Alaskan Assets with Marathon Purchase

By Janet Elliott

While other oil companies re-focus on shale development, Hilcorp Energy Company, a Houston-based independent, continued to snap up assets in Alaska’s Cook Inlet, this time from Marathon Oil Corporation.

Last July, Hilcorp’s Alaska LLC subsidiary closed on the sale of some of Cook Inlet’s oldest oil and gas facilities with Chevron subsidiary Union Oil Company of California.

This week, Hillcorp Alaska agreed to purchase most of Marathon’s Alaskan assets including 17 million barrels of oil equivalent of net proved reserves across 10 fields in the Cook Inlet, natural gas storage, and interests in natural gas pipelines.

Baker Botts, along with Patton Boggs and Crowell & Mooring, represent Marathon Oil Corporation in the sale of its Alaskan oil reserves and other assets to Hilcorp Alaska, which is represented by Andrews Kurth.

In 2011, net production averaged approximately 93 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and 112 barrels of oil per day. Marathon Oil also had approximately 12.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas in storage at the end of 2011.

The parties did not disclose the value of the deal, which has an effective date of Jan. 1, 2012. Government and regulatory approvals are expected to be completed before the sale closes this fall.

The Baker Botts team is led by Hugh Tucker, head of the Global Projects department in Houston and firmwide head of the Oil and Gas section. Other Houston partners involved are Scott Janoe (Environmental); Rob Fowler (Tax); Rufus Oliver III (Litigation) and Dallas partner Matt Larsen (Tax). The team also includes Houston senior associates Anthony Speier (Global Projects); James Chenoweth (Tax); Houston associates Coleson Bruce, David Castro, Ausra Laurusaite-Kromelis and Rocio Mendoza, all of the Global Projects department; Zackary Pullin and Brandon Essigmann, of the Tax section; and Colette Joubran, of the Environmental section.

Nicole Singer and John Polisini are in-house counsel to Marathon.

The Andrews Kurth team is led by Hal Haltom, a partner in the Houston office. Others working on the sale are Houston partners Chris Fenelon, Tom Ford and Allison Mantor; Dallas partner Kay Lynn Brumbaugh; and Houston associate Morgan O’Neill.

Hilcorp’s Bill Swenson, executive vice president and general counsel, and Michael Fertitta, assistant general counsel, are involved in the transaction.

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