Pioneer Natural Resources plans to sell 155,000 gross acres in the Barnett Shale to fund development in the its West Texas Permian Basin and South Texas Eagle Ford Shale properties. Approximately two-thirds of the company's Barnett acres are deemed "Barnett Combo" acres that are prospective for liquids-rich shale gas.

Pioneer's current production is 7,000 boe/d with 55% attributed to oil/NGLs and 45% attributed to natural gas.

“The sale of our Barnett Shale properties will allow us to strategically reallocate capital to our higher-return, core assets in the Spraberry vertical play, the horizontal Wolfcamp Shale play and the Eagle Ford Shale. We plan to utilize the net proceeds from the divestiture to reduce indebtedness under Pioneer's credit facility.”

The data room will open in October and Pioneer plans to close the transaction in Q1 of 2013.

Read the full press release at pxd.com