American Energy Utica, an affiliate of American Energy Partners, announced Feb. 3 that it has signed three agreements to acquire approximately 130,000 net acres in the southern Utica Shale play from affiliates of Hess Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation and privately-held Paloma Partners, LLC.

Hess

Hess Corporation said that it entered into the agreement to sell approximately 74,000 acres of its dry gas acreage in the Utica Shale to AEU for $924 million.

“The sale of our Utica dry gas acreage is an example of our continued commitment to grow shareholder value through ongoing portfolio reshaping. While our wells in the dry gas portion of the Utica were highly productive, we concluded that the potential returns from such an investment, at current and projected natural gas prices, no longer justified retaining this acreage as a strategic part of our overall liquids-based asset portfolio,” said John B. Hess, chief executive officer of Hess.

According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Hess had 12 Utica shale wells that were in production in 2013 and 34 wells that were being developed. The wells were in Harrison, Belmont, Guernsey and Jefferson counties. The company also has six Marcellus shale permits in Ohio: two are producing, a third is drilled and the three others are permitted only.

The company is also a partner in an Ohio joint venture with Pennsylvania-based Consol Energy.

Hess said it plans to spend $550 million in 2014 to drill 35 wells in the Utica shale’s wet gas window in eastern Ohio.

AEU

American Energy Utica was founded by Aubrey K. McClendon in April 2013.

These acquisitions will bring AEU’s holdings of southern Utica Shale leasehold to approximately 260,000 net acres, a level that is the largest in the industry and of which approximately 90% is located in the core of the play, defined as southern Jefferson, Belmont, eastern Guernsey, Harrison, Monroe and Noble counties.

Drilling plans

AEU plans to drill approximately 2,700 gross wells and 1,600 net wells in these counties over the next decade.

AEU’s lead equity investor is Houston-based The Energy & Minerals Group, with additional equity provided by First Reserve Corporation, AEU management and others. EMG manages a family of funds that invest in the energy and minerals sectors and have approximately $8.4 billion of assets under management.