In a move reflecting a recent market trend of trying to minimize costs while, at the same time, growing a larger footprint in a given basin, Linn Energy LLC is selling off $2.3 billion in assets to fund its similarly sized deal with Devon Energy Corp.

Earlier this year, Linn CEO Mark Ellis outlined plans to improve the bottom line at the Houston-based MLP: realize value for its Midland Basin position; make accretive acquisitions; and reduce capital intensity while increasing efficiency and improving credit metrics.

The Devon deal was a good start, and Linn has just laid out plans to further its pledge with two newly announced transactions to fund the Devon buy, which included assets in five U.S. operating areas where production is roughly 275 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) with about 80% of that in natural gas. The asset package is composed of about 900,000 net acres across the Rockies, Midcontinent, East Texas, North Louisiana and South Texas regions with about 4,500 total wells. Linn has identified more than 1,000 future drilling locations and more than 600 recompletion opportunities, the company said in a statement.

That was in June. Fast forward to October, and Linn Energy has already come up with the money needed to make the Devon buy a wash. Linn’s $1.95 billion divestiture of its assets in the Western Anadarko Basin effectively gets the Houston-based MLP out of that play while establishing a large-scale footprint for the privately held Denver-based company, FourPoint Energy LLC.

The deal includes more than 170 miles of gas gathering and compression systems, liquid stabilization, associated water supply and disposal infrastructure, as well as an oil terminal in Wheeler County, Texas. These assets combined with the partnership’s midstream assets in Hemphill and Roger Mills counties to provide price optionality and uninterrupted takeaways for the company’s oil and gas volumes, as well as functioning as a potential platform for third-party volume growth.

But this sale doesn’t take Linn out of the midstream business altogether. The company maintains its Jayhawk gas processing plant in southwestern Kansas, as well as infrastructure acquired in the Hugoton Basin through its trade with ExxonMobil Corp. in the Permian Basin.

For its part, FourPoint, an affiliate of EnerVest Ltd., acquired upstream assets from Linn that include an interest in 1,358 producing wells mostly in the Granite Wash, Tonkawa, Cleveland and Marmaton formations, which net 195 MMcf/d. The assets spread across more than 145,000 net acres throughout western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, where 97% of the acreage is held by production.

Jefferies was the financial advisor to FourPoint Energy and EnerVest in connection with the $1.95 billion transaction.

In the second October deal, Linn signed a definitive agreement with Fleur de Lis Energy LLC to sell its Wolfberry positions in Ector and Midland counties in the Permian Basin for $350 million.

“One of our goals for 2014 was to maximize value for our Midland Basin and Granite Wash assets in order to reduce the capital intensity and decline rate within our portfolio,” Ellis said, adding that the October transactions largely accomplish those goals. “When considered in light of the accretive acquisitions and trades we’ve announced this year, we are very excited about our business as we move into 2015,” he said.

Deon Daugherty can be reached at ddaugherty@hartenergy.com or 713-260-1065.