(By Balaseshan) Enerplus Corp. (NYSE: ERF), which has oil and natural gas property interests, said it has closed purchase of Bakken Oil assets in Montana and sale of Manitoba assets
The company has completed previously disclosed acquisition of additional working interests in the Sleeping Giant area in the Elm Coulee field in Richland County, Montana for $119 million including estimated closing adjustments.
This acquisition includes about 6.2 million BOE of proved plus probable reserves, incremental daily production of about 1,550 BOE/day, and consolidates working interest to about 90% in these operated leases. Total current production including the acquisition is about 7,300 BOE/day net to Enerplus.
Enerplus has also closed the sale of crude oil assets in Manitoba for $216 million including estimated closing adjustments. These assets were producing about 1,600 BOE/day of crude oil under waterflood and had an estimated 8.4 million barrels of estimated proved plus probable reserves associated with them.
The company said these transactions are consistent with Enerplus' strategy of focusing its portfolio through the sale of non-core assets and consolidating its interests in core areas.
"By reinvesting approximately half of the proceeds from the sale of our Manitoba assets, we have replaced the sold production, improved the concentration of our asset base and improved our operating metrics," said Gordon Kerr, Chief Executive of Enerplus.
Enerplus, formerly Enerplus Resources Fund, has oil and natural gas property interests are located in western Canada in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and in the United States in the states of Montana, North Dakota, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wyoming and Utah.
ERF closed Wednesday's regular session up 0.23% at $13.12. The stock has been trading between $11.35 and $26.54 for the past 52 weeks.