Blackstone’s Investment Credit Arm Looking to Unload US Oil and Gas Producer PRI Operating for $2B

Blackstone Credit, the investment credit arm of Blackstone, is eyeing the sale of US-based oil and gas producer PRI Operating to raise approximately $2 billion, including debt, reported Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter. 

The report cites unnamed sources as saying a sale of PRI Operating will be the next step in the group’s strategy to abandon investments in oil exploration given environmental concerns and years of poor returns. 

A potential sale could include the land and surface rights, as well as pipeline infrastructure that supplies water to help extract shale oil and gas, according to the sources. 

PRI Operating owns roughly 35,000 net acres in the southern Delaware basin, which forms part of the wider Permian basin which stretches across Texas and New Mexico, as well as pipeline infrastructure used to transport the water used to help extract shale oil and gas. 

Blackstone sold GEP Haynesville to Southwestern Energy for $1.85 billion and Primexx Energy Partners to Callon Petroleum for $788 million last year, while the company, in partnership with Apollo Global Management, is also reportedly looking to sell Canadian oil and gas producer Ridgeback Resources.