The Wiser Oil Co., in an effort to boost its natural gas reserves, reported it has entered into an agreement to acquire Calgary-based Invasion Energy Inc. for an aggregate purchase price of C$55 million. Dallas-based Wiser said it has reached a deal with Invasion’s shareholders to acquire all outstanding common shares for C$33 million cash, and assume Invasion’s net debt of C$22 million.

Invasion, a private gas exploration and production firm, has been primarily operating in the Wolverine and Bison Lake fields about 275 miles northwest of Edmonton, AB. Currently, Invasion is producing 15.4 MMcf/d of gas from 70 active wells in the area. The company has a 100% working interest in almost all of the properties. Wiser estimates that as of April 30, Invasion had about 28.8 Bcf of net proved gas reserves before royalties.

“The Invasion acquisition achieves several of our goals by adding more natural gas reserves to our portfolio and building upon our existing Canadian asset base,” said George K. Hickox Jr., CEO of Wiser. “We have identified numerous development wells to be drilled and we believe there is extensive exploitation potential within the Invasion acreage block. We plan to conduct geological and geophysical work on this acreage over the next several months in anticipation of an aggressive development program for the 2001/2002 winter drilling season.”

In addition to Invasion’s developed leases, the company has a 95% interest in approximately 235,000 acres of undeveloped leases surrounding the producing wells. Wiser said it expects to close the acquisition before the end of May 2001.

©Copyright 2001 Intelligence Press Inc. Allrights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republishedor redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without priorwritten consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.