El Paso Corp. has closed on the sale of certain Gulf of Mexico, onshore, and Texas Gulf coast properties. In total, El Paso contracted for the sale of an estimated 309 bcfe of proved reserves for $752 million in four transactions.

The Gulf of Mexico transaction also included the assumption by the purchaser of future plugging and abandonment liabilities associated with those properties, which were reflected on El Paso's balance sheet as asset retirement of $93 million.

Final cash proceeds are expected to be near $650 million and will be used for the reduction of debt incurred for the acquisition of Peoples Energy Production Co. in September 2007. Jefferies Randall & Dewey acted as financial advisor to El Paso.

Two Transocean rigs contracted for $928M

Transocean Inc.'s ultra-deepwater drillship Dhirubhai Deepwater KG2, which is owned by a joint venture in which the company has 50% interest, has been awarded a five-year drilling contract from Reliance Industries.