Plains Exploration & Production Co. (PXP) and a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) agreed to pay $162 million to an undisclosed third party to jointly acquire 11,500 net acres in the Piceance Basin. The leasehold is adjacent to PXP’s existing Piceance Basin natural gas assets (see Daily GPI, April 19, 2007). The agreement gives PXP and Oxy a 95% working interest in the acreage. Plains plans to operate the leasehold and estimated that it includes more than 800 future drilling locations and 75 million boe net potential of unproved reserves. The transaction is expected to close by the end of September.

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