Magnum Hunter Resources Inc. said Monday that it had closed on the sale of a $13.4 million package of non-core South Louisiana oil and gas properties to a private undisclosed third party. The deal included approximately 42 wells in nine separate fields located in Acadia, Iberville, Lafourche, Plaquemines, Point Coupee, St. Mary, and Terrebonne Parishes, LA and Newton and Orange Counties, TX. Including the South Louisiana sale, Magnum Hunter estimated its total sales of non-core properties to-date reaches $115 million. The company noted that most all of the properties sold were acquired in conjunction with the March 2002 merger with Prize Energy Co. All of the net proceeds received from the various divestitures over the past year have been used to further reduce Magnum Hunter’s overall indebtedness. “The sale of this latest group of South Louisiana properties allows Magnum Hunter to exit this region and further allows our Gulf Coast technical staff to concentrate on our core fields located in South Texas,” said Richard R. Frazier, COO of Magnum Hunter. “The majority of the value of the South Louisiana properties divested were in non-producing categories, requiring additional risk capital to fully exploit. By divesting out of South Louisiana, we can further reduce our indebtedness with minimal effect on the company’s current daily production.”

Tri-Valley Oil & Gas Co. announced that it has received a drill permit for its “Oil Creek” Prospect near the town of Coalinga, CA, some 130 miles northwest of the company’s Bakersfield headquarters. Tri-Valley said the prospect is surrounded by an area that during the past 135 years has produced nearly two billion barrels of oil and nearly 4 Tcf of natural gas. The company added that it continues to be an important producing area for ChevronTexaco, which controlled much of the acreage until recently when it sold large blocks to lease firms. “Given the wealth of downhole information from the area, Tri-Valley added its own proprietary data to develop the Oil Creek Prospect and was able to negotiate a favorable lease from the new owner,” said F. Lynn Blystone, CEO of Tri-Valley Oil & Gas Co. “We are comfortable with our estimate of six prospective zones that could hold a potential estimated in the range of 125 million barrels of oil and 125 Bcf of natural gas.” Noting that the company’s projects are high risk and its stock is speculative and event driven, Blystone said, “in the past seven years, including the toughest times of the petroleum industry and the stock market, we have increased our market capitalization more than 40 times. Our goal is to repeat that growth and more over the next couple of years with discovery success on a large scale targeting big prospects like Oil Creek.”

As the largest provider of vehicular natural gas (CNG and LNG) in North America, Clean Energy, (formerly ENRG), said Monday that it has been awarded the liquefied natural gas supply contract for Valley Metro, which provides public transit service in nearly 20 communities in the greater Phoenix, AZ metropolitan area. Under the five-year agreement, Clean Energy said it stands to record more than $34 million in revenue. The deal also includes five additional one-year options. The Valley Metro partners — City of Phoenix, City of Tempe, and the Regional Public Transportation Authority — operate nearly 540 LNG-fueled buses, which currently use an estimated eight million gallons of LNG per year. Clean Energy said it expects usage to grow to more than 11 million gallons per year in the fifth year of the contract. Clean Energy’s customer base includes refuse, transit, shuttle, taxi, police, intrastate and interstate trucking, airport and municipal fleet markets with tens of thousands of vehicles fueling at more than 145 locations in the United States and Canada. Current customers include Los Angeles International Airport, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, SuperShuttle, SunLine Transit, Foothill Transit, Waste Management, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, SYSCO Foods, Ft. Worth Transportation Agency, Denver International Airport, Denver RTD, MTDB of San Diego, LaGuardia Airport, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and the U.S. Navy. Clean Energy is a private company whose major shareholders include Boone Pickens, Terasen Inc., Westport Innovations Inc. and Perseus 2000 LLC.

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