Gastar Exploration Ltd. is selling its interest in the Culp Draw and Table Mountain areas of the Powder River Basin for $2.4 million in cash from an undisclosed buyer. Gastar, headquartered in Mount Pleasant, MI, owns about 3,033 acres in the leases, and said it would retain a small overriding royalty interest. The sale is expected to close in about 45 days. “Along with the funds from our previously announced Powder River Basin joint venture, this transaction makes additional funds available for our planned activities, including our projects in the Deep Bossier Sands play in East Texas, the deep Trenton-Black River and Devonian Shale plays in West Virginia and our Australian coalbed methane (CBM) plays in New South Wales and Victoria,” said Russell Porter, Gastar’s COO. Gastar’s CBM activities are conducted within Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, and it also owns prospective acreage in East Texas, the Black River play of Appalachia and the East Lost Hills field within the San Joaquin Basin. TransTexas Gas Corp. filed its second Chapter 11 banktruptcy reorganization plan in four years last Friday. The company and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Galveston Bay Processing Corp. and Galveston Bay Pipeline Co., had filed voluntary petitions for relief last November and on May 1 filed their joint plans of reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Corpus Christi Division. From April 19, 1999 through March 17, 2000, the company also operated as a debtor-in-possession under Chapter 11 and emerged from bankruptcy on Jan. 31 (see Daily GPI, March 20). TransTexas is engaged in the exploration, production and transmission of natural gas and oil, primarily in South Texas, including the Eagle Bay field in Galveston Bay and the Southwest Bonus field in Wharton County.
Mountain
Articles from Mountain
Joint Venture Targets CBM Properties in Powder River Basin
Rocky Mountain Gas Inc. (RMG) has signed on with Gastar Exploration Ltd. in a joint venture to develop nearly 37,000 acres of Gastar’s coalbed methane (CBM) properties in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana.
Williams Sells Uinta Reserves to Berry Petroleum
Williams unloaded more Rocky Mountain reserves Thursday, selling about 8.6 million boe (75% light oil and 25% natural gas) of reserves in the Uinta Basin in Utah to Berry Petroleum for $49 million. Earlier this month Williams sold a much larger chunk of its reserves, 311 Bcfe, to XTO for $400 million (see Daily GPI, April 10).
RMG Options 40,000 More Acres in Powder River Basin
Rocky Mountain Gas Inc. (RMG) upped its potential in the Powder River Basin after signing an option agreement to acquire nearly 40,0000 net acres of undeveloped coalbed methane (CBM) properties in northeastern Wyoming.
WIC Tests Market for West Flow to Kern River
With the Kern River 2003 pipeline expansion set to add 900 MMcf/d of gas transportation capacity out of the Rocky Mountain region this fall, other upstream pipelines are expecting producers to begin searching for ways to bring their growing production to Opal, WY, where Kern begins its 900-mile route to Southern California.
WIC Tests Market for West Flow to Kern River
With the Kern River 2003 pipeline expansion set to add 900 MMcf/d of gas transportation capacity out of the Rocky Mountain region this fall, other upstream pipelines are expecting producers to begin searching for ways to bring their growing production to Opal, WY, where Kern begins its 900-mile route to Southern California.
Industry Brief
BP started producing about 15,000 b/d of oil and 12 MMcf/d of gas from a single well at its Horn Mountain development in the Gulf of Mexico. Production from the facility, which is located in 5,400 feet of water 100 miles southeast of New Orleans, is expected to reach a peak rate next year of more than 65,000 b/d of oil and 68 MMcf/d of gas after a total of seven production wells are completed. BP started exploration on the field in July 1999 after acquiring leases in 1997 and 1998. The first discovery was announced in August 1999, and BP and partner Occidental Petroleum began delineation drilling immediately after that. The $600 million project, which includes the deepest free-floating dry tree drilling system in the world, went from discovery to production in about 40 months. It is expected to result in ultimate recovery of an estimated 150 million boe. BP is the operator and holds a 67% equity interest. Occidental Petroleum holds the remaining 33%.
Williams Files Application to Build 400-Mile Western Frontier Pipe
In an effort to bring burgeoning Rocky Mountain gas production to the Midcontinent region, Williams Gas Pipeline has filed an application for a new $365 million pipeline that would run from the Cheyenne Hub in northern Colorado to multiple pipeline interconnections in southwestern Kansas and the panhandle of Oklahoma.
RMG Begins Coalbed Methane Drilling in Northeastern WY
U.S. Energy Corp. and Crested Corp. reported on Wednesday that their Rocky Mountain Gas Inc. (RMG) subsidiary has commenced drilling of developmental coalbed methane (CBM) wells on the company’s properties in the Powder River Basin in northeastern Wyoming. RMG currently holds 22 drilling permits on the properties and has surveyed and applied for an additional 32 permits within the project, the companies said.
Anadarko Doubles Rockies E&P, Grows Canadian Business
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is doubling up its Rocky Mountain exploration and production presence this year, announcing it would budget more than $131 million toward an aggressive strategy to find and develop new natural gas and coalbed methane sources. The Houston-based company also plans to grow its Canadian natural gas business, announcing plans to invest $380 million in drilling and development.
