Producing

The Yukon Territory’s new Liberal government has stepped forwardto go to bat for a revival of the dormant Alaska Natural GasTransportation System (ANGTS) as its enthusiastic choice for anorthern pipeline project.

EOG Resources and Burlington Resources announced a deal to swapproducing properties with about 40 Bcfe of gas (or 6.5 million bblof oil equivalent) in proved developed reserves. The oil and gasproperties EOG will receive are located in the Permian Basin ofsoutheast New Mexico and West Texas. Burlington will receiveprimarily gas properties centered in its operating areas of theAnadarko Basin in northwest Oklahoma and Hemphill County, TX.

Courage Energy Inc., an oil and natural gas company withoperations in western Canada, announced yesterday a purchase of aninterest in producing wells and facilities in the Peace River Archarea of northern Alberta for $13.5 million. The seller wasundisclosed and Courage will now operate the property with 55%ownership. The acquisition will immediately add over 3 MMcf/d tothe company’s production. There are additional wells awaitingcompletion, and pipeline tie-in, which will add to these productionvolumes, Courage said. The purchase includes 28,000 acres (16,000acres net) of land and a comprehensive seismic database. Anindependent engineering report, prepared for the Vendor, hasassigned 14.1 Bcf of proved reserves and an additional 6.428 Bcf ofrisked probable reserves for a total 20.5 Bcf of establishedreserves. The scheduled date to close the acquisition is Feb. 28,with an effective date of Dec. 31.

EnerMark Income Fund of Calgary offered to acquire all shares ofWestern Star Exploration Ltd. by way of a take-over bid. WesternStar assets are mainly producing gas properties concentrated in theHanna, Taber and Thornbury areas of Alberta. EnerMark’s estimate ofWestern Star’s proven reserves total 36,855 MMcf of gas and 147MBoe of crude oil and gas liquids. These reserve volumes includethe results of a successful 21-well gas development program atHanna Garden.

Apache Corp. will increase its oil reserves five-fold with a deal to acquire producing properties and other assets in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, Canada with proved reserves of 87.5 MMBoe from Shell Canada Limited for $524 million. The deal follows one made earlier this year with Shell for Gulf of Mexico assets that more than doubled Apache’s gas and oil production.

Apache Corp. made a definitive agreement to acquire producingproperties and other assets in Alberta, British Columbia andSaskatchewan, Canada with proved reserves of 87.5 MMBoe from ShellCanada Limited for C$770 million (US$524 million at currentexchange rates).

Amoco Energy Trading, Amoco Producing and Burlington Resourcestold FERC last week in a Section 5 complaint that they are losingmillions of dollars because of El Paso Natural Gas’ poor firmdelivery point allocation procedures at Topock, AZ.

Amoco Energy Trading, Amoco Producing and Burlington Resourcestold FERC this week in a Section 5 complaint that they are losingmillions of dollars because of El Paso Natural Gas’ poor firmdelivery point allocation procedures at Topock, AZ.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co. of Dallas closed a $62.3 millionsale of South Texas gas properties to CNG Producing Co. Proceedswill retire bank debt. Pioneer also agreed to sell a West Texasproperty for $35 million to EnerQuest Oil & Gas of Midland, TX.The property is the last waterflood field operated by Pioneer.Selling the higher-cost field cuts Pioneer’s operating costs. Thetransaction is scheduled to close by the end of the third quarterwith a Jan. 1, 1999 effective date. Pioneer announced the propertysales in June. Pioneer property divestitures in Canada areprogressing as expected, and the company expects to close the lastof several Canadian deals this month. Pioneer has major operationsin the United States, Canada and Argentina.