Building on our existing Bakken land base in North Dakota, Enerplus has entered into an agreement to acquire an additional 46,500 net acres (72 sections) of land in the Fort Berthold area of Dunn and McKenzie counties in North Dakota.$456 million/46,500 acres = $9,806/acre.
These lands are directly adjacent to our existing land holdings in this area and are prospective for light crude oil in the Bakken and Three Forks formations. The acquisition materially expands our current position to over 70,000 net acres (109 sections) in the Fort Berthold area, the majority of which will be operated by Enerplus with a greater than 90% working interest.
With this acquisition, we now have over 210,000 net acres of undeveloped land with early stage Bakken and Three Forks potential in North Dakota and Saskatchewan in addition to our core Bakken
field at Sleeping Giant in Montana.
The acquisition includes approximately 800 bbls/day of light crude oil production and proved plus probable reserves of 10 million BOE primarily attributable to the Bakken formation based upon our internal evaluation. This compliments our existing estimate of eight million BOE of unbooked proved plus probable reserves in this area. The purchase price before closing adjustments is US$456 million and will be funded through Enerplus' existing credit facility. The acquisition is expected to close in October 2010.
Yup, almost $10,000/acre. It's great acreage but it's not in the Sanish or the Parshall oil fields, as far as I know.
Investors: you now have another data point with which to valuate your favorite Bakken company.
