The board of directors at Denbury Resources Inc. (NYSE: DNR) approved the adding of $250 million to the authorized share repurchase program, the company said Jan. 3. The increase leaves $422 million in authorized repurchases remaining, the company added. The total amount of the program, begun Oct. 2011, is $1.162 billion. Additionally, Denbury converted all its 2014 oil derivative contracts to fixed price swaps from collars, the company said.

Out of the program's billions, Denbury has spent $740 million in acquiring 48 million common shares at about $15.55 per share. This is about 12% of shares outstanding at Sept. 30, 2011, the company said. Also, $78 million was spent in the fourth quarter 2013 acquiring five million common shares at $16.22 per share, the company said.

The program has no expiration date, and the entire authorized amount is not required to be used, Denbury said.

Additionally, the 2014 fixed price oil swaps now cover 58,000 barrels of oil production per day. This is approximately 80% of estimated 2014 average daily oil production, at approximately $93.50 per barrel, for the first half of 2014. Also, this is roughly $92.50 per barrel for the second half of 2014, the company said.

The conversion tightens the estimated range of Denbury's anticipated cash flow from operations in 2014, the company said, adding that prior to this, oil hedges were all costless collars with price floors of $80 per barrel.

Denbury also added natural gas hedges to its hedge portfolio, the company added.

"With our continued confidence in our focused strategy and favorable outlook, we believe our common shares represent a highly attractive investment. As a result, we continue to opportunistically repurchase our common shares and have increased the amount authorized under our repurchase program. With our oil hedge conversion and current outlook for 2014, we are well positioned to more than fund our planned capital expenditures and dividends for the year with estimated cash flow from operations. We look forward to expanding our shareholder value proposition to include both growth and income with the payment of our first regular quarterly dividend to common shareholders in the first quarter of 2014,” Phil Rykhoek, president and CEO, said.


Denbury, an independent oil and gas company, focuses on enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in the Gulf Coast and Rocky Mountains. It is based in Plano, Texas.