Dejour Enterprises Ltd. and investment partner Brownstone Ventures have acquired 64,000 net acres of oil and gas leasehold in Colorado and Utah from privately held Retamco Operating Inc. The transaction gives the partners operational control of 128,000 acres in the Rocky Mountains. Dejour, an exploration and production company based in Vancouver, BC, would hold a 71% stake in the leasehold. Brownstone, a Canadian-based energy investment firm, would hold the remaining interest. Overall, the companies would have around 289,000 gross acres of leasehold properties in Colorado and Utah. The additional acreage was acquired in exchange for Dejour’s and Brownstone’s working interest in roughly 3,500 acres and two wells at North Barcus Creek and a cash payment. The North Barcus Creek wells were drilled on joint acreage held by Retamco at the end of 2007 and are awaiting production tie-in, Dejour stated. The transaction, said Dejour, completes its first step in a strategy to develop a “major operating presence” in several of the most promising producing basins in the Rockies. In the next two years the producer plans to drill and complete “at least” 10 exploration wells in the Piceance Basin. Based on its exploration results, it may move to full resource development.

Hosuton-based Mariner Energy Inc. said it made a deepwater discovery in the Gulf of Mexico on the Geauxpher prospect located in Garden Banks Block 462. The well, which lies in 2,700 feet of water, was drilled to a total measured depth of 23,156 feet. Mariner estimated the field’s gross proved and probable reserves on the block to be around 100 Bcfe. Development is under way with initial production expected as soon as year-end 2008. Mariner is the designated operator and holds a 60% working interest; Apache Corp. holds the remaining stake. In November 2007 Mariner farmed into Geauxpher and provided the rig to test the prospect. The drilling rig remains on location and a second well is planned to delineate the extent of the discovery. Mariner also is farming into the Heidelberg Miocene subsalt deepwater prospect in which it holds a 12.5% stake. Heidelberg is operated by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in Green Canyon blocks 816, 859, 860 and 903. An exploration well is expected to spud on the acreage by the end of 2008.

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