Penn West Petroleum Ltd. announced its intention to sell between USD1.5 billion to USD2 billion of its assets. The company is looking to reduce its debt levels over the next two years, according to a report by CBC News.

The Calgary-based conventional oil producer released a strategy note that said it would focus on the development of light-oil in its Cardium, Slave Point and Viking blocks. It also mentioned that it aimed to sell about USD485 million of its assets by the end of 2013. As the compnay struggled with weak gas prices, it appointed David Roberts as its new CEO in June, the report said.

"In the last four months we have taken meaningful steps to improve our cost structure, continued to increase our capital performance and begun rationalizing our asset base through both sales activities and shutting production with marginal economic returns," Roberts said in the strategy note, as reported by CBC.

According to Penn West, its 2014 budget capital would be USD900 million. It would spend 40% of it on Cardium, CBC said.