Junior independent Imperial Petroleum Inc. has signed a definitive agreement with Hillside Oil & Gas LLC to acquire its Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana oil and gas assets for approximately $5.88 million. Imperial, headquartered in Evansville, IN, will retire Hillside’s bank debt and pay off its accounts payable at closing as well as provide one million shares of restricted stock.

“Hillside operates most of the 150 wells it owns an interest in and generally owns a 100% working interest,” said Jeffrey T. Wilson, Imperial’s president. “The properties generate approximately $1.3 million per year in cash flow when all the wells are online, and [they] are located in excellent producing areas throughout Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana. We have retained an investment banking firm to assist us in completing the financing for the Hillside acquisition.” Hillside is headquartered in Midland, TX.

In May, Imperial established a presence in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming with its acquisition of 63.3% of the capital stock of Powder River Basin Gas Corp. in exchange for 2.65 million shares of the its common stock and a note payable for $200,000.

“In preparing the company for future growth and expansion and in connection with our other acquisitions, we have been needing to clean up our balance sheet and we have been able to accomplish that at an above-the-market rate,” said Wilson.

The diversified energy and mineral mining company explores for oil and gas as well as minerals, with a particular emphasis on gold mining. Imperial does not operate any active oil and natural gas properties directly, although it remains a significant shareholder of Warrior Resources Inc. (formerly Comanche Energy Inc.), which does operate in the oil and natural gas business. The company also is operator of the Duke Gold Mine in Utah.

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