Stone Energy Corp. announced Wednesday that the acquisition of interests in eight producing oil and gas properties and related assets located in the Gulf of Mexico was completed on Dec. 31, 2001. The final aggregate purchase price, as previously announced, was $299.7 million and was financed with net proceeds from Stone’s recently completed offering of $200 million of 8.25% senior subordinated notes due 2011, and borrowings under its bank credit facility.

Stone had previously announced Conoco was the main interest holder in the properties. Stone Energy, an independent oil and gas company headquartered in Lafayette, LA, has the shallow Gulf as its focus. “We like the Gulf because it has existing infrastructure, which reduces the capital requirements and allows for a high rate of return by getting your wells on quickly,” D. Peter Canty, Stone Energy president, told an investors’ conference last fall (see Daily GPI, Oct. 15). Also on the plus side, Canty said, is the availability of an extensive field history, more predictable cost, and “the political stability that comes from what we believe to be the best lessor in the world.”

Canty said the majors, which usually divest mature properties, hadn’t been doing that while prices were high, opting instead for added compression and recompletions to push out more production. That, however, is changing, and Stone “is positioned with dry powder to take advantage of what we anticipate to be a large divestiture.”

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