Stone energy sells Gulf of Mexico oil, gas fields for $200m

 Stone Energy agreed to a 200-million-dollar deal on Tuesday to sell some of its oil and natural gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico to Talos, a Houston-based company.
Talos will pay 200 million dollars in cash upfront and assume 117 million dollars in future costs to plug and abandon wells on the properties.
Stone Energy, an independent U.S. oil company, will keep a 50-percent working interest in the fields as well as the right to drill ultra-deep oil and gas wells in the area.
Stone Chairman and CEO David Welch said in a statement that the sale will let Stone focus on deep water in the Gulf and deep gas on the Gulf coast.
The Louisiana-headquartered company in recent years has been cutting down its involvement in shallow water drilling, in an effort to redirect their capital and resources to the oil-rich deepwater Gulf as well as deep gas wells onshore.
Stone Energy's remaining properties on the Gulf of Mexico Shelf are oil-focused, producing about 6,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
The Shelf properties included in the Talos deal are primarily natural gas fields, producing about 57 million cubic feet equivalent of oil and gas during the first quarter this year.
The transaction is expected to close by early August.