RIL considering divestment of Eagle Ford midstream business

Eagle Ford midstream system consists of 10 central gathering plants and about 460 miles of pipelines

Reliance Industries Inc on Wednesday said it had agreed to consider the divestment of its Eagle Ford Shale midstream joint venture with partner Pioneer Natural Resources Co.

Reliance owns a 49.9% stake in the business, EFS Midstream LLC, while Pioneer is the operator with a 50.1% stake in the Eagle Ford midstream system, which consists of 10 central gathering plants and about 460 miles of pipelines.

Pioneer will redeploy capital from the sale to its core oil rich assets in West Texas, and currently has no plans to divest its upstream assets in the Eagle Ford shale, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

Reliance, which Reuters reported is seeking a buyer for its 45% stake in its Eagle Ford joint oil and natural gas venture, did not mention its plans for the upstream assets.

The midstream business was set up in 2010 to construct facilities to handle condensate and natural gas from wells in the Eagle Ford shale and Pioneer's cash flow from the business is expected to be over $100 million in 2015, according to the company's statement.

Reliance said in a statement to the exchange that its current investment in EFS Midstream was $208 million.

Reliance shares were down 0.88% at Rs 993.555 as of 12:37 pm in a broader Mumbai market that was up 0.12%.