Noble Energy to Sell Cone Gathering Stake

Noble Energy Inc. (NBL) said Friday that it is selling its 50% stake in Cone Gathering LLC for $305 million in cash to CNX Resources Corp. (CNX).

The deal with CNX is expected to close sometime early next year. Cone Gathering is the owner of Cone Midstream Partners LP's (CNNX) general partner. Noble Energy and Consol Energy Inc. (CEIX), which CNX spun off last month, formed Cone Midstream Partners, which owns and works with energy and natural gas assets for the Marcellus Shale area.

Houston-based Noble Energy also said Friday that it no longer will divest itself of its Marcellus midstream holdings. Wheeling Creek Midstream LLC, which is part of Quantum Energy Partners, was supposed to buy those holdings for $765 million.

Noble Energy Chief Financial Officer Kenneth Fisher said in prepared remarks that the deal announced Friday was "an expeditious path forward to realize the full value of our Marcellus midstream interests."

Noble will keep its 21.7 million common limited partnership units and will sell those "over the next few years," the company said.

Shares of Noble Energy were down 0.2% in low-volume premarket trading. CNX Corp. shares were flat in premarket trading.

Write to Allison Prang at allison.prang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 15, 2017 07:42 ET (12:42 GMT)