By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 10 – Gastar Exploration Ltd., Houston, is buying 59,000 net acres of leasehold in the Marcellus shale in West Virginia from undisclosed private sellers.
The leases are concentrated in Preston, Tucker, and Pendleton counties, WV, on trend with other successful Marcellus shale wells. Closing is set for December 2010.
Under a previous exclusive option, Gastar deepened an existing vertical well and tested it at more than 1.1 MMcfd of gas from the Lower Marcellus. The company also recompleted a vertical well at rates as high as 1 MMcfd from the same zone.
Besides acreage, and assets being acquired include a 41-mile gathering system, a salt water disposal well, and seven producing conventional wells making a combined 500 Mcfd of gas.