Mikaila Adams
Associate Editor, OGFJ

After filing for bankruptcy earlier in the year, San Antonio-based TXCO Resources Inc. has agreed to sell a large portion of its assets for $223 million to Houston-based Newfield Exploration Co. The purchase price is to be paid in cash at closing with no financing contingencies. Newfield has agreed to an earnest money deposit of $20 million. Read OGFJ's November 2007 interview with TXCO's chairman and CEO James Sigmon.

In February, TXCO retained Goldman Sachs & Co. to review strategic alternatives and, on August 27, retained the investment banking firm of Global Hunter Securities LLC to help market its assets. 

Newfield initially bid $211 million in mid-October to acquire substantially all of TXCO's assets. An offer from another third party to purchase all of the company's assets prompted Newfield to increase its bid to $223 million.

The San Antonio-based oil and gas exploration company was focused on the Maverick Basin in South Texas and holds nearly 630,000 net acres in the block. 

Newfield's domestic areas of operations include the Anadarko and Arkoma Basins of the Mid-Continent, the Rocky Mountains, onshore Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. While not its core area of operation, Newfield has been active onshore Texas since the mid-90s. Today, about 23% of the comapny's production is attributed to operations in South Texas, the Val Verde Basin of West Texas, and in East Texas. 

Internationally, Newfield operates offshore Malaysia and China. 

At year-end 2008, the company had total proved reserves of 2.95 Tcfe, nearly 90% of which were located onshore US. The company's reserve base is 72% natural gas. Roughly 62% of its reserves are proved developed.