• El Paso Corp., Houston, will sell approximately $2.25 billion in assets in 2002 as part of a plan to strengthen its capital structure and enhance its liquidity. Assets to be sold include some oil and gas, one refinery and the coal subsidiary. The divestments and other plans are to reduce the company's debt-to-total-capital ratio from 56% percent to approximately 50% by year-end 2002 and will simplify the company's financial structure. El Paso has more than 6 trillion cubic feet equivalent of gas reserves and is the fourth largest producer of gas in the U.S. • Stone Energy Corp., Lafayette, La., acquired from Conoco Inc., Houston, eight producing properties in the Gulf of Mexico and certain gathering facilities and pipelines for $299.7 million cash. Estimated net proved reserves are approximately 214.4 billion cu. ft. of gas equivalent, consisting of 25.7 million bbl. of oil and 60.2 billion cu. ft. of gas, with an estimated reserve life of approximately nine years. • Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Houston, has entered into a joint venture with BP Exploration & Production Inc. to explore 95 deepwater blocks held by BP in the Garden Banks and Keathley Canyon areas of the central Gulf of Mexico. The 95 blocks, which make up an area known as South Auger, are part of a larger 640-block area of mutual interest where the two companies will license and reprocess 3-D seismic data. These blocks are in 3,000 to 6,000 feet of water. Most of the targets are deep, subsalt objectives. BP has also agreed to assign Anadarko its rights in eight blocks in the Green Canyon area near Anadarko's Marco Polo discovery on Block 608. Anadarko is currently working on development plans and options to commercialize this discovery. BP holds 100% of the 95 South Auger-area blocks. The joint venture agreement gives Anadarko the option to earn a 33% to 66% working interest in these blocks. The remainder of the blocks in the 640-block area of mutual interest are either unleased or have been leased by other companies. • Forest Oil Corp., Denver, plans to sell some of its holdings to Unocal Corp. and will jointly explore certain areas in the central Gulf of Mexico. Unocal will acquire a portion of Forest's proved reserves, estimated at about 4% of Forest's proved reserve base and 5% of Forest's current production. Unocal would buy 50% of Forest's interest in South Marsh Island and a portion of the Vermilion areas offshore central Louisiana for $120 million in cash. Unocal also would operate the jointly owned properties. • Comstock Resources Inc., Frisco, Texas, plans to purchase DevX Energy Inc., Dallas, for $7.32 per share, totaling $92.5 million. DevX's properties are onshore in east and south Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Kansas with production during the first three quarters of 2001 totaling 7.5 billion cu. ft. of gas equivalent. • The Houston Exploration Co. will acquire onshore producing properties from Conoco Inc. for $69 million cash. The producing and undeveloped properties total approximately 28,000 gross acres in Webb and Zapata counties in south Texas. The assets include interests in 159 producing wells from the Wilcox and Lobo trends in the Alexander, Haynes, Hubbard and South Trevino fields. • Encore Acquisition Co., Fort Worth, Texas, will acquire properties in the Permian Basin from a major oil company for $55 million. The two principal operated properties are the East Cowden Grayburg and the Fuhrman Nix fields, and the nonoperated properties are the Yates and North Cowden fields in Ector, Andrews, Crockett and Pecos counties, Texas. Encore estimates existing proved reserves are in excess of 10 million bbl. More than 73% of the acquisition is operated. The properties are to produce approximately 2,000 bbl. of oil per day in 2002, net to Encore. • Esenjay Exploration Inc., Houston, will sell a 23.45% working interest in its Runnells Field in Matagorda County, Texas, to Santos USA Corp. for $20.25 million cash. The company will also be reimbursed for the Runnells No. 7 drilling costs. Esenjay will retain a 9.68% working interest in the Runnells unit, which contains approximately 700 acres. Esenjay will also retain a 10.57% working interest in an additional 1,400 acres covering this structure. After the sale, Santos' working interest in the field will be 63% and it will become the operator. Estimated net proved reserves associated with the interests total approximately 4.82 billion cu. ft. of gas equivalent.