Natural gas-focused explorer and producer Bill Barrett Corp said it will buy properties in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin in the Niobrara oil play for about $150 million, joining a slew of companies looking to tap oil and natural gas liquids.
The company will buy the properties, near the Colorado-Wyoming border, from a unit of privately-held independent energy company Texas American Resources Co.
Denver, Colorado-based Bill Barrett said it expects the deal, which will add more than 67,000 net acres to its acreage, to close in the third quarter.
An increasing spread in the prices of natural gas and crude has led companies such as Anadarko and Petrohawk to invest heavily in oil and natural gas liquids-rich fields such as Bakken shale, Niobrara shale, Eagle Ford shale and Permian Basin.
The properties include an estimated 7 million barrels of oil equivalent net proved reserves and about 650 barrels of oil equivalent per day net production.
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