Murphy unit seals Gulf venture deal
Murphy Exploration & Production Co. has completed the previously announced Gulf of Mexico joint venture agreement with Petrobras America for about $795 million, the subsidiary of El Dorado-based Murphy Oil Corp. said Monday.
Under terms of the deal, both companies contributed all their current producing Gulf of Mexico assets to the joint venture company, MP Gulf of Mexico LLC, which is owned 80 percent by Murphy Oil and 20 percent by Petrobras America.
Benefits of the transaction include increasing total Gulf of Mexico production to about 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, providing high-margin production with Gulf of Mexico prices, and accelerating activity in the Eagle Ford Shale with cash flow generated from new joint venture assets.
Murphy Oil now expects to have fourth-quarter production of about 176,00 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Murphy Oil also announced the closing on a new $1.6 billion five-year senior unsecured revolving credit line, replacing a previous $1.1 billion unsecured facility.
-- David Smith
Helena bank name to become Partners
Helena Bancshares Inc.'s board of directors and shareholders said Monday that they approved a name change for its subsidiary bank to Partners Bank.
In October, Helena Bancshares completed its conversion from a federally regulated bank through the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to a state-regulated bank with the Arkansas Bank Department.
The bank previously had the name Helena National Bank but was required to remove the word "National" from its name when it was no longer federally regulated. Since late October, the bank has gone by an interim name, "HNB Bank."
Upon approval by the state Bank Department, the name change is anticipated to begin in March.
There is no change in bank ownership or customer accounts.
HNB Bank is a 78-year-old, full-service community bank with branches in Helena-West Helena, Marvell and Wynne. As of Sept. 30, HNB Bank had $167.1 million in assets.
-- David Smith
Arkansas Index off 2.64, ends at 417.01
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 2.64 points to 417.01 Monday.
Total volume for the index was 23.1 million shares.
"A rally sending global stocks to their highest level in three weeks follows an agreement between Washington and Beijing at the G-20 summit in Argentina on Saturday that calls for a 90-day trade tariff truce," said Chris Harkins, managing director with Raymond James & Associates in Little Rock.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 12/04/2018