From the Wall Street Journal:

NEW ORLEANS (Dow Jones) -- Petrohawk Energy Corp. (HK) plans to sell $1 billion worth of pipelines and other oil and gas gathering equipment this year to help fund oil exploration efforts, Chief Executive Floyd Wilson said Wednesday.

"We're doing the best we can of moving our dollars as soon as we can into the oilier areas out there," Wilson told investors at an energy conference here.

The Houston oil-and-gas producer plans to "plug any spending gaps with additional divestitures" of pipelines and other so-called midstream assets, Wilson said.

Last April, Petrohawk sold a 50% stake in its gas gathering assets in the Haynesville shale formation in east Texas and northern Louisiana to Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP (KMP) for $875 million.

This time Wilson said he hopes to raise at least $1 billion in a sale.

Petrohawk operates primarily in the oil-rich Eagle Ford shale formation in south Texas and the Haynesville formation, which produces gas almost exclusively. While Wilson said Petrohawk will slow drilling in Haynesville this year amid weak natural gas prices, instead directing exploratory efforts toward Eagle Ford, the company plans to hold onto its gas-producing properties.

"We are not letting any of our gas acreage go," Wilson said. "It's going to be solid gold one day."

Petrohawk shares recently traded 2.46% higher at $23.34.

-By Ryan Dezember, Dow Jones Newswires, 713-560-6670, ryan.dezember@dowjones.com