2010-10-13-2010-10-07-2010-10-07

Transaction Type
Sellers
Buyers
Announce Date
Post Date
Close Date
Estimated Price
MM
Description

Acquired approximately 23,000 net acres of highly prospective rights targeting ND Bakken and Three Forks formations, gaining 100 BOE/d.

Denver-based, privately held Lario Oil & Gas Co. and an undisclosed partner have acquired approximately 23,000 net acres of highly prospective rights targeting the Bakken and Three Forks formations from Rocky Mountain Exploration Inc., a privately held exploration company based in Denver, for an undisclosed price.

The assets include interests in more than 36 Bakken and Three Forks wells, primarily in Little Knife Field in Dunn and Stark counties, North Dakota. Upside includes numerous PUDs and offsetting acreage. Current production from these properties is approximately 100 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/d). Tracker Resource Development will operate the properties. Recent discoveries in the immediate vicinity include Tracker's Wing 15-1H well in Little Knife Field, which had a 24-hour peak rate of 1,643 BOE/d, and Tracker's Murphy 11-1H well in Murphy Creek Field, which had a peak rate of 1,934 BOE/d.

The acquisition brings Lario's total regional holdings to more than 250,000 gross (49,182 net) acres in the Bakken and Three Forks formations in North Dakota, Montana and Saskatchewan, Canada. The majority of the acreage is held by production. Lario's Bakken and Three Forks production is currently estimated to be 3,000 net barrels of oil per day (BO/d).

The deal closed on Sept. 23. The effective date was July 1.

"Lario has made tremendous progress towards our 2010 strategic growth goals in the first three quarters of the year," says Lario president Mike O'Shaughnessy. "We now hold significant positions in two of the best liquids-rich resource plays in North America – the Bakken in the U.S. and Canadian Williston Basin and the Niobrara light oil play in the Colorado DJ Basin."

Lario has interests and operations primarily in the Permian, Greater Green River, Williston, Denver-Julesburg, Arkoma and Sacramento basins, and internationally in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.