• Chesapeake Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, (NYSE:CHK) plans to buy $100 million of Midcontinent, Permian Basin and Texas Gulf Coast assets in four transactions totaling 68 billion cu. ft. of gas equivalent of proved reserves and 39 billion cu. ft. equivalent of probable and possible. Production is 15 million cu. ft. equivalent per day. With these purchases, Chesapeake's proved reserves will total approximately 3.6 trillion cu. ft. equivalent, and 2004 production may total as much as 910 million cu. ft. equivalent per day (89% gas). Half of the increased production is from these purchases, and half from better-than-expected recent drilling results, Chesapeake reports. After allocating $16 million of the purchase price to unevaluated leasehold, probable and possible reserves, and other assets, Chesapeake estimates the purchase price at $1.24 per thousand cu. ft. equivalent of proved reserves. Including unevaluated leasehold and anticipated future drilling costs for fully developing the proved, probable and possible reserves, the company estimates an all-in acquisition cost for the 107 billion cu. ft. equivalent of estimated reserves at $1.39 per thousand cu. ft. equivalent. The proved reserves have a reserves-to-production index of 12.5 years, and are 66% oil and 74% proved developed. Two of the purchases were to close April 1 and the other two, May 1. The sellers were not identified. • Texas Pacific Group plans to sell its shares of Denbury Resources Inc., Dallas, (NYSE: DNR). TPG holds approximately 9.3 million shares, or approximately 17% of outstanding common. Closing was expected on or about March 26. Lehman Brothers Inc. is underwriter. • Black Stone Minerals Co., Houston, has struck a deal to buy all of the upper Gulf Coast producing and nonproducing fee mineral and royalty assets of Unocal Corp. subsidiary Pure Resources, Midland, Texas, for $192.4 million. The assets include interests in developed and undeveloped oil and gas properties in the Permian Basin of West Texas, San Juan Basin in New Mexico and Colorado and the Upper Gulf Coast region of Texas and Louisiana. The properties are in 10 states, including Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Florida, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New York. They comprise about 5.6 million gross acres, or 3.3 million net acres, and include royalty and overriding royalty interests in about 1,100 wells with net daily production of 13.5 million cu. ft. per day on a gas equivalent basis. The deal may close in June. • Privately held, Dallas-based Vaughn Petroleum Royalty Partners Ltd. has sold certain mineral, overriding royalty and royalty interests to an undisclosed buyer for $35.5 million. Annual cash flow from the properties for 2003 was approximately $4 million. The properties include interests in more than 3,000 producing wells and more than 578,000 gross acres (63,000 net). The majority of the assets' value is in Texas and New Mexico, and additional interests are in Oklahoma, Michigan, Arkansas, Louisiana, Nevada, Mississippi, Utah, Wyoming, Kansas and North Dakota. Some of the interests involve properties operated by companies such as Occidental, ExxonMobil and XTO Energy. Dallas-based Energy Spectrum Advisors Inc. was exclusive financial advisor to Vaughn.