Pioneer Natural Resources Company PXD is planning to divest its assets in the Delaware Basin, per Reuters. The company is expecting to generate more than $2 billion from the divestments.The recovery in commodity prices has made divestments of oil and gas assets more profitable for upstream companies. From last year’s historic oil price crash, WTI Crude is now hovering at around $70 per barrel. Natural gas prices are also climbing new heights as the demand for exports is rising. As such, Pioneer Natural expects to attract more cash from selling non-core properties. The company received the assets, which are now up for sale, from the Parsley Energy acquisition, per Reuters. The divestment is likely to help the company streamline the upstream portfolio. As investors these days are putting pressure on companies to boost shareholder value rather than production, upstream companies like Pioneer Natural are focusing more on profitable resources.Cash from the potential offloading can enable it to reduce debt burden, following two major acquisitions that it executed this year. Pioneer Natural acquired smaller rival Parsley Energy for $4.5 billion, which expanded its Permian footprint to 930,000 net acres. The company’s DoublePoint Energy acquisition has made it one of the biggest producers in the Permian Basin. As a result of the bolt-on acquisition, 97,000 high-quality net contiguous acres were added to the company’s existing asset base. The deal boosted the acquirer’s total holding in the basin to more than 1 million net acres.The potential divestment of its Delaware Basin non-core assets can provide its balance sheet some breathing room. As of Jun 30, 2021, the cash balance totaled only $93 million. Long-term debt summed $6,926 million at second quarter-end, up from $3,160 million at 2020-end.Price PerformanceThe company’s shares have gained 70.8% in the past year compared with a 115.3% rise of the industry it belongs to.Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchZacks Rank & Stocks to ConsiderCurrently, Pioneer Natural has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks from the energy space include Cheniere Energy, Inc. LNG, Kinder Morgan, Inc. KMI and Chevron Corporation CVX, each having a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cheniere Energy’s bottom line for 2021 is pegged at $2.98 per share, indicating a massive improvement from the year-ago loss of 34 cents.Kinder Morgan’s bottom line for 2021 is expected to rise 47.7% year over year.The consensus estimate for Chevron’s earnings for 2021 is pegged at $6.73 per share, indicating a major improvement from the year-ago loss of 20 cents. Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit Potential The biotech sector is projected to surge beyond $2.4 trillion by 2028 as scientists develop treatments for thousands of diseases. They’re also finding ways to edit the human genome to literally erase our vulnerability to these diseases. Zacks has just released Century of Biology: 7 Biotech Stocks to Buy Right Now to help investors profit from 7 stocks poised for outperformance. Recommendations from previous editions of this report have produced gains of +205%, +258% and +477%. The stocks in this report could perform even better.See these 7 breakthrough stocks now>>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Chevron Corporation (CVX): Free Stock Analysis Report Pioneer Natural Resources Company (PXD): Free Stock Analysis Report Cheniere Energy, Inc. (LNG): Free Stock Analysis Report Kinder Morgan, Inc. (KMI): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research