To help pay off debt in an effort to avoid bankruptcy, coal miner Murray Energy Corp. will sell more than 5,900 acres worth of Utica Shale natural gas reserves in Belmont and Monroe counties for $63.6 million.

Murray officials declined to identify the buyer, but public records show the firm leased approximately the same number of acres to Gulfport Energy Corp. for fracking in October 2014. Officials with Oklahoma City-based Gulfport could not be reached for comment.

The selling price would be approximately $10,800 per acre.

“We are pleased that we were able to reach this agreement, which will provide us with additional liquidity and will allow us to further focus our efforts on our core business and to de-lever our balance sheet,” said Robert D. Moore, Murray executive vice president, chief operating officer, and chief financial officer.

In a totally separate transaction, Pittsburgh-based fracker EQT Corp. will buy nearly 60,000 acres from Trans Energy Inc. for $683 million, with much of this land in Marshall and Wetzel counties.

In 2012, Robert E. Murray — who serves as chairman, president and CEO of the company that bears his name — said certain natural gas companies could endanger the lives of miners if they attempted to reach the Marcellus and Utica shale formations by drilling through coal seams at the Century Mine and Powhatan No. 6 Mine.

However, after some negotiating, Murray later leased the acreage near these mines to Gulfport in 2014. Today, Gulfport is one of the premier producers in Ohio, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.

With plans already in place to shut down the Powhatan mine by the end of this year, Murray continues reducing its workforce amid declining coal markets. Robert Murray has openly discussed his firm’s efforts to avoid bankruptcy in multiple published reports this year.

“Murray Energy prides itself in being the safest and lowest cost coal producer in every sourcing region in which we operate, and this transaction will help to strengthen our position in a very competitive coal marketplace,” Moore added regarding the sale.