Kerr-McGee has received antitrust approval for its $1.3 billion acquisition of natural gas producer HS Resources Inc., based in San Francisco. The Oklahoma City independent said it had been granted early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, and when completed, Kerr-McGee would join the top five list of leading oil and gas independents, and would up its gas reserves 77%. Kerr-McGee announced in mid-May that it would acquire gas-rich HS Resources for $66 per share (see NGI, May 21). The deal will consist of a 70% cash payment and 30% of Kerr-McGee Stock. Kerr-McGee also will assume about $450 million of HS Resources’ debt. With its core program in the Rockies, HS Resources holds about 1.3 Tcfe in reserves in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of northeast Colorado. With the acquisition, Kerr-McGee said it expected to increase its daily production of U.S. natural gas by more than 45%.

Schlumberger subsidiary IndigoPool.com said it would provide the online marketplace to divest of seven coalbed methane property packages in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. The project, co-developed by Waterous & Co. and IndigoPool, allows potential buyers to evaluate the properties online. Powder River Joint Venture, a five-company partnership, operates the seven CBM projects in Campbell and Johnson counties. The assets are currently producing 1.2 MMcf/d from the initial project area, and a second project area is being brought onstream, said IndigoPool. The partnership consists of CanScot Resources, Bluerock Energy, NorthFinn LLC, Tower Colombia Corp. and Wildmere Resources. Buyers will have online access to the same information found in a physical data room, and will have web-enabled tools allowing them to analyze and evaluate properties “without the logical constraints of paper-based and static online systems,” said Dan Magyar, president of IndigoPool. Information on the properties may be found at www.indigopool.com. Additional information is available from Waterous & Co. in Calgary at (403) 261-4242 or in Houston at (713) 437-5067.

Vancouver-based KMS Power Income Fund, through its manager KMS Energy Inc., has announced a 10-month gas swap contract with Nicor Energy LLC, designed to fix prices for a proportion of the natural gas used by KMS Crossroads. The agreement, at a price of $5.07/MMBtu, encompasses 20,000 MMBtu/month, representing about 40% of the average gas consumption at KMS Crossroads. An additional fixed local transportation charge of approximately $0.55/MMBtu was added to the contract. By fixing the price for about 40% of gas consumption, KMS said it expected to reduce the potential impact of price spikes while leaving a portion of the gas unadjusted for more flexibility. KMS Power is an open-ended trust that operates independent power projects in Canada and the United States.

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