CALGARY�A unit of Alberta Energy Co. Ltd., Calgary, has bought privately owned Ballard Petroleum LLC, of Billings, Mont., for $340 million (Can.), acquiring 280 bcf equivalent of proven and probable gas reserves (46.7 million boe) in the Mamm Creek field of northwest Colorado.
The cash transaction is scheduled to close in February.
AEC Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. valued the reserves in the Piceance Basin at $274 million (Can.) The company said the acquisition includes about 175,000 net undeveloped acres, valued at $35 million. The purchase also includes a gas pipeline gathering system at Mamm Creek worth $31 million.
AEC Pres. and CEO Gwyn Morgan said the Ballard acquisition will provide significant growth potential plus concentrated, high-working interest, long-life reserves. AEC is Canada�s largest gas producer.
Last year AEC bought Jonah field, with 1 tcf of reserves, and the Wyoming field is expected to produce 180 MMcfd of gas this year (OGJ Online, May 3, 2000). Morgan said the Mamm Creek field will add production from an adjacent Rocky Mountain basin.
AEC said more than 500 drilling locations have been identified at Mamm Creek and it plans to drill 300 wells over the next 3 years to increase production to 65 MMcfd by 2003.
