2010-12-15-2010-12-02-2010-12-02

To buy company with 96 wells, gathering and compression assets and approximately 40,000 net Marcellus acres in WV & PA, gaining 19 MMcfl/d, PDP reserves of 20 Bcfe.

Privately held, Denver-based Antero Resources LLC has acquired privately held, Ellenboro, W.Va.-based Bluestone Energy Partners for $118 million in cash and debt, gaining assets in the Marcellus shale.

Antero will pay $93 million in cash and assume $35 million in debt. Antero also issued approximately 3.8 million units in the transaction with an undisclosed price per unit.

The Bluestone assets include 93 operated vertical and three operated horizontal wells, gathering and compression assets and approximately 40,000 net acres in the Marcellus play in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Approximately 96% of the leasehold is in West Virginia and 54% is held by production.

Operated production is 19 million gross cubic feet of gas per day (13 million net, including nonoperated). Proved developed producing reserves are 20 billion cubic feet equivalent.

The assets also include 11 billion cubic feet net of gas hedges for production through December 2013 at a Nymex-equivalent price of $7.21 per million Btu.

Antero chairman and chief executive Paul Rady says, "We are pleased to announce this strategic transaction with Bluestone Energy Partners that significantly adds to our Marcellus shale acreage position in the heart of the southwest core area of the play. Sam Ross, Mike Hall and the Bluestone team have created quite a valuable asset in the play and we congratulate them on their success. We appreciate their confidence in Antero as exhibited by their equity position in Antero going forward."

Antero now controls approximately 168,000 net acres in the Marcellus play and has 80 million cubic feet per day of gross operated production (56 million net) from the shale.

The deal closed on Dec. 1 with an effective date of Nov. 30.