Penn West Petroleum confirms $230M asset sale, including northern Alberta property

Penn West Petroleum Ltd.says it hasnegotiated the sale of an additional $230 million of assets,including a formerly core property in the Slave Point area ofnorthern Alberta.

The Slave Point transaction is worth $148 million. The sale ofnon-core assets will add a further $80 million in cash.

Penn West says the sale of Slave Point will reduce its overalloperating costs.

It also expects to have room to develop and grow through itsCardium play south of Slave Point and its Viking play on theAlberta-Saskatchewan border.

It says the effective sale date for the Slave Point transactionwill be Jan. 1 and the deal is expected to close during the secondquarter of 2016. The sale of non-core assets is also to close during the second quarter.

Since the beginning of 2015, Penn West has completed or arranged$1 billion in cash asset sales.

"Although Slave Point has long been one of our core assets,given the current outlook for commodity prices, we had no
development activity planned for at least the balance of thisyear," Penn West chief financial officer David Dyck said Monday.

"While we believe that Slave Point offers upside, the extensionof our Viking play and recent Cardium performance provide us withample development and growth opportunities and the most attractiverates of return in our portfolio. We are confident that our over1,400 sections of land between those two plays will give ussignificant running room going forward."