• Devon Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, is acquiring Santa Fe Snyder Corp., Houston, for $2.2 billion in stock plus the assumption of about $1 billion in debt, creating one of the top five independents in the U.S. (See story in this issue of Oil and Gas Investor.) • Titan Exploration Inc. has completed its merger with the Permian Basin business unit of Unocal Corp. to create Pure Resources, Midland, with approximately 230 million cu. ft. of gas equivalent of daily production. Pure Resources owns 1.02 trillion cu. ft. of gas equivalent of proved reserves with a 12-year average life. The reserves are 80% proved developed producing and 60% gas. The value of the new entity is concentrated in 20 properties that represent 78% of the total reserves. Pure Resources is trading on the New York Stock Exchange as PRS. Titan stockholders own 34.6% and Unocal, 65.4%. • Union Pacific Resources Group Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, has completed the sale of its 13 Canadian properties to nine different purchasers for US$82 million. The properties produced 4,775 BOE per day in the first quarter net to UPRI. Nine of the 13 properties are in the Peace River area of northwest Alberta; the others are in the Provost area straddling the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. • Dominion Exploration & Production Inc., New Orleans, a subsidiary of Dominion Resources Inc., has acquired a 60% interest in the Devil's Tower discovery in the Gulf of Mexico and will operate the deepwater project after the completion of the first appraisal well, which was scheduled to spud in May 2000. Dominion E&P, formerly CNG Producing Co., had a 30% interest in Devil's Tower when the discovery at Mississippi Canyon Block 773 was announced in February and has acquired the additional 30% from Mariner Energy Inc. This will be the first deepwater project operated by Dominion E&P. The Devil's Tower discovery is in 5,610 feet of water southeast of New Orleans. The sale, for an undisclosed amount, reduces Mariner's working interest to 20%. Other partners in Devils Tower are Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (15.83%) and Westport Oil and Gas Co. (4.16%). • Privately held Hilcorp Energy I LP, Houston, purchased producing properties from Amoco Production Co. for $63 million. The acquisition involved eight onshore Gulf of Mexico fields, with 50 active operated and five nonoperated wells. Net production is 2,500 bbl. of oil and 15 million cu. ft. of gas per day. Separately, Hilcorp purchased the Murphy Lake Field in Louisiana from Amerada Hess Corp. for $2.7 million. Net production is 180 bbl. of oil and 50,000 cu. ft. of gas per day. • Magnum Hunter Resources Inc., Irving, Texas, has formed an alliance with the oil and gas unit of GE Capital Structured Finance Group for a new partnership, Mallard Hunter LP, to acquire certain reserves from two of Magnum Hunter's subsidiaries. The GE Capital SFG unit is the limited partner of Mallard Hunter, and Magnum Hunter is general partner. Magnum Hunter's wholly owned subsidiary, Gruy Petroleum Management Co., will remain operator of the properties. Magnum Hunter assigned approximately 20 billion cu. ft. of gas equivalent of proved producing reserves to the limited partnership for approximately $23 million with a 35% reversionary interest upon predetermined partnership payout. Gruy Petroleum will receive income and management fees from the limited partnership during the life of the partnership. The reserves assigned to the partnership are approximately 60% oil. Separately, Gruy has formed an alliance and made a capital investment in Aurion Technologies Inc. Gruy has committed to install approximately 2000 monitoring devices on its existing properties. These properties are a combination of company-owned and those presently operated for third parties, including estates, utilities, partnerships and other independent oil and gas companies. Gruy's minority ownership interest in Aurion includes warrants to expand its ownership position. • Peoples Energy, Chicago, has purchased an interest in 25 producing wells in South Louisiana and on the Texas Gulf Coast valued at $18 million from NBB Energy Partners I LP. Peoples Energy will become, for the first time, an operator of oil and gas properties. Nearly 60% of the production is gas; the balance is primarily condensate. People's Energy owned interests in eight of the acquired wells. • Enerplus Resources Fund, Westrock Energy Income Fund I and Fund II and a private pension resource corporation have acquired additional interests in the Pembina area of western Canada for a total consideration of C$47.5 million. The acquisition increases the Enerplus group's working interest in the property to 92% and allows Enerplus to assume operatorship. • Bargo Energy Co., Houston, is selling all of its Ardmore Basin producing properties in southern Oklahoma to Le Norman Partners LLC for $31.9 million, prior to closing adjustments. • Tema Oil & Gas Co., Houston, and Gateway Gathering & Marketing Co., Houston, bought producing properties and associated gathering assets in West Texas that were valued at $21 million. The acquisition includes 62 producing wells, which will be operated by Tema, and increases Tema's net reserve holdings by 50%. • Southwestern Energy Co., Fayetteville, Ark., will acquire properties in the Overton Field in Smith County, Texas, from TotalFina Elf in a deal valued at $6.5 million. The property includes approximately 7.5 billion cu. ft. of proved gas reserves on about 8,800 contiguous acres with 16 active wells producing from the Cotton Valley formation at depths less than 12,000. Southwestern will operate the fields with an average 93% working interest. The fields are now producing about 2 million cu. ft. of gas per day. • Clayton Williams Energy Inc., Midland, has signed a joint exploration and development agreement with Phillips Petroleum Co., Bartlesville, Okla., covering approximately 1,760 acres owned by Phillips and an area of mutual interest covering 10 sections in Eddy County, N.M. CWEI will operate the drilling and production of the wells and will own a 55% working interest in all wells drilled in the program. The Phillips acreage adjoins CWEI's current acreage position in this area where CWEI has drilled 12 producing wells this year. • Aspen Group Resources Corp., Oklahoma City, has merged with Briscoe Oil Operating Inc. and has acquired 55% of Briscoe and all operating interests in the company's 180 producing wells. The remaining 45% interest was acquired by Hat Creek Exploration LLC. Of the 180 wells, 178 are in Oklahoma, one is in Texas, and one is in Kansas. The merger adds 186,000 bbl. of oil and 4.0 billion cu. ft. of gas to Aspen's reserves. Separately, Aspen acquired 66 producing wells from MOG Oil & Gas Co. for $300,000. Sixty-five of the wells are in Butler County, Kansas, where the company recently announced the acquisition of 33 oil wells from The Flowers Estate. The remaining well is in Pawnee County. • Tulsa independent, Aroc Inc., has acquired assets having a net present value, discounted at 10%, of approximately $62 million from affiliates of EnCap Investments LC, Houston. The assets include approximately 280 wells in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Wyoming. Aroc issued to the EnCap affiliates an aggregate of 930,140 shares of newly created preferred stock. • BWAB LLC, Denver, and Castle Offshore LLC have purchased 100% working interest in West Delta Block 52 in Louisiana. Current production is 300 bbl. of oil per day and proved reserves are estimated at 1.3 million bbl. Castle will be the operator. • Delta Petroleum Corp., Denver, and Whiting Petroleum Corp. have agreed for Delta to acquire certain producing interests from Whiting for $11.2 million and 90,000 shares of restricted common stock of Delta. The interests are primarily in the Eland and Stadium fields, Stark County, N. D. Production net to the interests being acquired by Delta is approximately 700 BOE per day. • GulfWest Oil Co., Houston, has purchased a 100% working interest in natural-gas properties in the Leona River Field in Zavala County, Texas, for $2.6 million in cash and stock. The properties have 10 producing and nine shut-in wells with proved reserves estimated at 3 billion cu. ft. of gas and a 10-mile gas-gathering system. • Krescent Energy Co. LLC of Houston has acquired a 50% working interest in High Island Block 128 for $175,000. Separately, Krescent has acquired a majority interest in two wells from Range Resources and Duncan Energy in Hordes Creek Field in Goliad County, Texas, for less than $125,000. • Petroglyph Energy Inc., Hutchinson, Kan., has received a proposal from its major stockholder, Intermountain Industries Inc., Hutchinson, Kan., to buy the approximately 2.7 million common shares of Petroglyph that it does not already own, for $2.20 per share. Petroglyph has retained Prudential Securities Inc. to serve as financial advisors. • Pontotoc Production Inc., Ada, Okla., has agreed to acquire all of the operated producing properties and related assets of Mike Cantrell and his company, Oklahoma Basic Economy Corp., for $9.8 million. The properties being acquired currently produce approximately 400 net BOE per day. Proven reserves on the properties are estimated to be 7.6 million BOE. The acquisition will double the company's proved reserves to 14.6 million BOE. • Puget Sound Energy, Bellevue, Wash., has sold all of its 1.1 million shares of 6% convertible redeemable preferred stock in Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. for $51.4 million, after expenses. In May 1999, Puget Sound Energy sold its investment in common stock of Cabot. As a result of these two transactions, Puget Sound Energy no longer holds any Cabot securities. • Range Resources Corp., Fort Worth, has agreed with First Reserve Corp. to provide the right to purchase or find buyers for all of FRC's remaining stockholdings in the company. FRC held 5.5 million of Range common. Through market transactions, that position has been reduced to 3.9 million shares. FRC will not sell any shares during the option period. Range can acquire the stock for $2.00 per share plus 50% of the premium more than $2.00 reflected in the most recent closing price. • Ambra Resources Group, Vancouver, has purchased an additional 25% of Venture Oil & Gas Inc., increasing its ownership of Venture Oil to 75%. The new investment will increase Ambra's interests in the projects the two companies have selected for this year's exploration and development program. • Dundee Petroleum Corp., Calgary, has agreed for the city of Medicine Hat to offer to acquire all Dundee shares by way of a takeover bid for C$0.40 cash per share, a 48% premium, totaling about C$7.45 million including assumption of $1.73 million in debt and working capital deficiency. Griffiths McBurney & Partners provided a fairness opinion to the Dundee board. • Peyto Exploration & Development Corp., Calgary, has acquired assets in Sundance, Alberta, from Eclipse Resources Ltd. for C$1.1 million and 1.7 million common shares of Peyto at C$1.30 per share. • Tethys Energy Inc., Calgary, has made an offer to acquire Maxwell Oil & Gas Ltd. for C$0.88 per share, a 17% premium, for a total deal value of C$12 million including debt and working capital deficiency. • Friede Goldman Halter Inc., Gulfport, Miss., has signed a definitive agreement to sell its vessel-repair unit to Bollinger Shipyards Inc., Lockport, La., for $80 million. The business is an operating unit of Halter Marine, Friede Goldman Halter's vessel division, and consists of five Louisiana and Texas facilities devoted to vessel repair and maintenance. Halter had increased its focus on the vessel-repair business with the purchase in 1997 of three of the repair yards.