Freeport McMoRan Inc said on Monday it will sell its deepwater Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas assets to Anadarko Petroleum Corp for $2 billion as it looks to cut its heavy debt load.
The sale to Anadarko, which is betting the deal will help more than double its U.S. Gulf production within five years, comes after earlier attempts by Freeport to sell all or part of its oil and gas business failed. In May, Freeport withdrew plans to launch an initial public offering for that business.
Anadarko said it would offer 35.3 million shares to fund the deal. Secondary stock offerings tend to be unpopular with existing shareholders and shares of Anadarko fell 2.9 percent in after-hours trading to $57.79 per share.