Anadarko sells oil fields to Exco to reduce debt

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., the oil and natural gas producer that bought Kerr-McGee Corp. this year, sold fields in Louisiana to Exco Resources Inc. for $1.6 billion to cut debt.

Dallas-based Exco, which went public in February with billionaire hedge fund manager T. Boone Pickens as its largest shareholder, will almost double its oil and natural gas reserves with the acquisition. Anadarko, based in the Woodlands, Texas, is selling assets to pay off debt after the purchase, completed in August, of Kerr-McGee and Western Gas Resources Inc. for a combined $22.5 billion.