Coastal Corp. subsidiary Coastal Oil &amp Gas bought oil and gasassets of Conoco in the Uintah Basin of northeastern Utah and thePiceance Basin of western Colorado. The properties are in two ofthe most prolific gas basins in the Rocky Mountains. Provedreserves are estimated at 500 Bcfe, about 95% gas.

Coastal is acquiring interests in 21 producing fields and anestimated 312,500 acres of producing and non-producing leaseholdinterests. The leaseholds include 106,000 acres of prospective deeprights under and adjoining the Natural Buttes Federal ExploratoryUnit, which Coastal currently operates in Uintah County, UT.Additionally, Coastal will acquire Conoco’s Dragon Trail processingplant which is capable of processing up to 60 MMcf/d. The plant isabout 15 miles south of Rangely, CO. Other assets included in theacquisition include two gas gathering systems. They are the Ouraysystem in the Ouray Field in Uintah County, UT, and Dragon Trailsin the Douglas Arch area of Colorado. Ouray has throughput of 5MMcf/d, and Dragon Trails has throughput of 30 MMcf/d

“These properties are an excellent fit with Coastal’s integratedNorth American natural gas strategy,” said David A. Arledge, CEO.”Coastal has significant existing natural gas reserves in the area,as well as an extensive transportation system with our ColoradoInterstate Gas Co. pipeline subsidiary. As a result, we canleverage both our geological expertise and our drilling programs toexpand our exploration and production core area in the Rockies toan adjoining basin in a prudent manner. With this acquisition, wehave the opportunity to drill more than 500 potentially productivelocations that are economically attractive at today’s gas prices.”

Joe Fisher, Houston

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