Cardinal Midstream LLC, a privately held natural gas midstream company , has agreed to acquire certain assets of Antero Resources LLC, an oil and gas firm for $268 million in cash. As per the deal, which is expected to close in early November, the Denver-based Antero Resources LLC will sell natural gas midstream properties in the Woodford shale area of the Arkoma basin in Oklahoma to affiliates of Cardinal Midstream LLC.
The assets include Antero’s 60% interest in Centrahoma Processing LLC, a joint venture with pipeline operator MarkWest Energy Partners LP (MWE). The Centrahoma assets include two cryogenic gas processing plants (with a total capacity of 100 million cubic feet per day situated in Coal and Atoka counties in Oklahoma) that gather, treat, dehydrate and process natural gas produced from the Arkoma Woodford shale, as well as a natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that connects the two facilities.
The acquisition will also provide Dallas-based Cardinal with Antero’s Northern Front Gathering System that delivers liquids-rich natural gas to the Centrahoma processing plants. Additionally, Cardinal will acquire Antero’s East Rockpile Gathering System in Pittsburgh County, Oklahoma that gathers natural gas and delivers it to an amine treating and compression complex for removing carbon dioxide.
The Antero transaction will not only expand Cardinal’s midstream footprint in the Arkoma Woodford shale — a prolific natural gas-producing basin in southeast Oklahoma — but also help its clients to quickly, economically and safely bring their natural gas and NGLs to market.
Eventually, as throughput at Centrahoma increases, Cardinal hopes to more than double its processing capacity in the region with a new 120 million cubic feet per day cryogenic processing plant to be installed in 2011.
