Houston-based Quantum Resources Management LLC (QRM), a privately held explorer based in Houston, agreed to pay Denbury Resources Inc. $900 million to acquire a package of natural gas-weighted assets in the Permian Basin of West Texas and southeastern new Mexico; the Anadarko Basin of Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas; and in East Texas.

The transaction would be QRM’s largest since its inception in 2006. QRM targets legacy gas and oil properties, and to date it had spent about $600 million for onshore assets primarily located in the southwestern part of the United States. The partnership, which is helmed by former executives of Westport Resources Corp., Burlington Resources Inc. and Ocean Energy Inc. among others, said it has acquisition capacity of more than $1 billion.

Denbury, which has evolved into an oil recovery specialist, has been selling off its gas assets for more than a year. Late last year it bought Encore Acquisition Co., and QRM is buying some of the gas assets acquired in that transaction (see Daily GPI, Nov. 3, 2009). Encore’s portfolio of onshore gas projects were in the Haynesville Shale, as well as the Permian, Anadarko and Arkoma basins. Denbury, which completed its purchase of Encore in March, continues to market the Haynesville assets, it said.

The properties to be sold to QRM are about 66% weighted to gas, and 64% of the reserves are also gas-weighted. The transaction is slated to close May 1.

QRM was founded by Donald Wolf, who serves as chairman. He is past chairman of Westport Resources Corp., which merged with Kerr-McGee Corp. in 2004 (see Daily GPI, April 8, 2004), which in turn was acquired by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in 2006 (see Daily GPI, June 26, 2006). Wolf also helmed General Atlantic Resources, among several other energy-related firms. Under his direction, both General Atlantic and Westport Resources were taken public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1993 and 2000, respectively. Wolf also is a director of MarkWest Energy Partners LP, Aspect Resources Corp. and Enduring Resources Inc.

CEO Alan L. Smith, who joined QRM in 2006, previously started up Chalker Energy Partners, which was funded initially by QRM. Smith previously was an executive at Ocean Energy, Burlington Resources, Ryder Scott Co. and ARCO Oil and Gas Co.

©Copyright 2010Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.