That could mean Antares' shares gather dust until completion of the deal on November 30.
The ASX says that because Antares is unwilling to comply with its continuous disclosure obligations under listing rule 3.1 by not disclosing the purchaser it has failed to put all the relevant information in the market, and cannot be allowed to trade its shares.
The ASX says it is "inconceivable" that the company's notice of meeting would not include the identity of the purchaser.
Energy News understands Antares has not even decided if it will disclose the name of the prospective purchaser in the notice, but it has not done so on previous occasions.
As a cash deal is proposed the company considers the name is irrelevant.
Either the cash will be paid and the deal will proceed, or it won't, and Antares will have a firm valuation for a future sale.
"In the circumstances, ASX cannot see any basis on which information about the identity of the purchaser for the Northern Star and Big Star projects should not be disclosed to the market immediately," listing compliance advisor Anjuli Sinniah said.
Sources familiar with transactions in the US, especially in hotspots such as the Permian Basin, say there are very good reasons not to make that disclosure.
If Antares tells the market who has cash to splash about in the Permian it will alert its neighbours and, in the cut-throat US land market, they could attempt to upstage the deal.
The counter-party may not want to be disclosed so it does not need to fend of similar advances, Antares said.
Antares has not even told the ASX who the purchaser is, and last week provided redacted contracts to the regulator.
In a statement to the ASX, Antares said making the identify public would be "detrimental to Antares' shareholders, noteholders and other stakeholders" by jeopardising completion of the agreement for the $US250 million sale ($A350 million), which is 15 times the market capitalisation of the company.
"We do not consider it reasonable to jeopardise transactions of this magnitude merely to advise the market of the name of the purchaser for no additional benefit," the company said.
Further, the company says since 2009 it has established a history of information remaining confidential and the market being kept fully informed, such as its sale of the Hawkville project to BHP Billiton, Eagle Ford Shale leases to Petrohawk Energy Corporation or Southern Star to Brietburn Energy Partners.
Further, if the company is forced to disclose the purchaser it would find it difficult to conduct similar transactions in the future if potential buyers were of the view that Antares could not keep details of a transaction confidential until it had been settled, the company said.
The ASX's decision to play hardball comes following a number of questionable lapses of judgement for the regulator, including a decision to allow Fifth Element Resources, Elsmore Resources and Sino Australia Oil & Gas to complete initial public offers despite substantial issues with their prospectuses.
The ASX's hard line could have its roots in the Australian Securities and Investment Commission's decision to take two Padbury Mining directors to court following the collapse of a claimed multi-billion dollar funding deal Oakajee port and rail project in Western Australia.
Padbury told the ASX in early 2014 that $6 billion in funding had been secured, however after ASX and ASIC questioned the deal it collapsed.
Padbury has failed to disclose that it needed procure some $1.3 billion in demand guarantees, and that it had failed to disclose the identity of its funding providers. It had also failed to independently verify the capacity of those providers to provide the funds.
Padbury's shares have been suspended since last December, and it will next face court on December 4.
Antares announced the sale of its remaining Permian Basin assets on September 7 to an unnamed private equity firm.
Cruickshank said private equity, such as Kelso & Company, was buying into plays such as the Permian Basin because it believes that the market has bottomed out, as evidenced by the extreme volatility in the oil price, which can soar 25% one day and fall 10% the next.
Ajax Resources and affiliates of Kelso recently struck a $US376 million deal to purchase W&T Offshore's assets immediately adjacent to Antares' leases, with one well right on the Big Star permit.
Ajax paid around $US15,000 per acre, a benchmark price that has not fallen much over the year, while Antares' secured an average of around $US12,000/acre, a fraction of the $US35,000/acre it secured for the earlier sale of its Southern Star project last year.
Those leases were held by production, whereas Big Star and Northern Star have fewer wells drilled to date.
The 13,000 acre Northern Star has been sold for about $US149 million and the 8000 acre Big Star for a gross $105 million.
