Lightstream Resources Ltd. (TSE: LTS) put all its assets in the Canadian side of the Bakken Shale for sale to cut debt as oil plummets. CEO John Wright says there’s no rush.
“We wouldn’t look to sell this on a fire sale basis,” Wright said of the offer announced on Dec. 15, adding the company is allowing two years to close deals. “We’ve certainly had lots of offers in the door at different times, over the last couple of years.”
Lightstream is among energy producers grappling with a 48% slump in U.S. crude prices since June as rising North American supplies add to a glut from Saudi Arabia to Russia.
Wright sees as many as 20 potential buyers for light oil properties in Saskatchewan that Lightstream will seek to sell when oil prices rebound, he said.
Lightstream plans to lower spending next year by 61% and reduce its dividend 63%.
The company’s Bakken business, which produced the equivalent of 13,799 barrels a day in the third quarter, could sell for more than $860 million (C$1 billion) depending on oil prices, Kyle Preston, an analyst at National Bank Financial in Calgary, wrote in a Dec. 16 note. He called the Bakken sale a “last-ditch effort” to fix Lightstream’s balance sheet.
While Lightstream has a higher debt load than some peers, the company isn’t at risk of missing any payments and is in a good position to ride out lower oil prices that may last for at least a year, Wright said.
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