• Weatherford International Ltd., Houston, (NYSE: WFT) plans to acquire Precision Drilling Corp., Calgary, (Toronto: PD) energy-services division and international contract-drilling division for US$2.28 billion, including 26 million Weatherford common shares and approximately US$900 million in cash. Precision's energy-services division is a provider of cased-hole and open-hole wireline services, drilling and evaluation services and production services. Weatherford's cased-hole wireline and underbalanced segments will be consolidated by this transaction. The transaction will also broaden the company's openhole wireline and directional capabilities. Precision's international contract-drilling division has 48 land rigs, including in the Middle East and North Africa. Hank B. Swartout, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Precision, says, "This transaction is the result of an extensive process undertaken by the board of directors to explore possible avenues of value creation for our shareholders. After careful consideration of various strategic alternatives, the board determined this opportunity to be the best for our shareholders and for employees of the respective divisions." Bernard J. Duroc-Danner, chairman, president and CEO of Weatherford, says, "What we are adding from Precision consolidates, strengthens and broadens critical segments of our business. Weatherford in turn will provide the Precision operations with the full support of our infrastructure, in particular in the Eastern Hemisphere. This is a growth strategy for shareholder value." The transaction will close in the third quarter of 2005. UBS was exclusive financial advisor to Precision, while Simmons & Co. International and Goldman, Sachs & Co. were financial advisors to Weatherford. • Range Resources Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, (NYSE: RRC) plans to acquire oil and gas properties in the Permian Basin for $116.5 million through the purchase of privately held Plantation Petroleum Holdings II LLC. The acquisition includes proved reserves of approximately 77 billion cu. ft. of gas equivalent (82% gas, 62% proved developed). The proved producing reserves-to-production ratio is 15 years. Range will assume operations of the properties and will own a working interest of approximately 100%. The properties to be acquired are similar to Range's existing properties in the Permian Basin. They have current production of approximately 7 million cu. ft. of gas equivalent per day from 58 wells. Range has identified 58 proven recompletion and drilling opportunities on the properties. Range intends to finance the transaction with a combination of bank debt and equity and is in the process of hedging a portion of the production through costless collars. Closing is expected by the end of June. "This is an attractive opportunity for Range," says John H. Pinkerton, Range's president. "The properties are comprised of high-margin, long-life reserves, that contain predictable growth opportunities. Importantly, the properties fit very well within our existing Permian Basin operations." The proved reserves are being acquired for $1.51 per thousand cu. ft. of gas equivalent and the acquisition replaces approximately 90% of the company's anticipated 2005 production. • Toreador Resources Corp., Dallas, (Nasdaq: TRGL) plans to acquire Pogo Hungary Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Houston-based Pogo Producing Co., (NYSE: PPP) for US$9 million. After closing, the acquired company's name will be changed to Toreador Hungary Ltd. The acquisition includes casing and tubulars and other oilfield equipment, a partially delineated gas field with two wells that tested at more than 4 million cu. ft. of gas per day and exploration permits covering approximately 764,300 acres. The transaction is expected to close by mid-June. The existing reserves and all of the exploration acreage are from two blocks in the Pannonian Basin; the Szolnok Block, which contains 646,724 acres; and the Tompa Block, which contains 117,756 acres. "This opportunity to establish a presence in Hungary is complementary to Toreador's existing operations and it is in keeping with our strategy to explore and produce in countries that are net importers of crude oil and natural gas," says G. Thomas Graves III, Toreador president and chief executive officer. "Hungary has the third-largest economy in east-central Europe." • Black Stone Minerals Company LP, Houston, and certain of its affiliates, including Black Stone Acquisitions Partners II LP, plan to buy a term royalty interest in certain gas-producing properties from Energy Corp. of America (ECA) for $155 million. The assets to be acquired are held by Appalachian Gas Royalty Trust, a subsidiary of ECA, and include a 90% royalty interest in 312 producing gas wells in the Appalachian Basin in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. The trust was to be offered by ECA in an IPO later this year. Black Stone will also acquire a 50% royalty interest in 180 development wells to be drilled by ECA in Kentucky and West Virginia. Estimated proved reserves in the term royalty interest are 45 billion cu. ft. of gas. The term royalty interest will extend for 20 years before it reverts to ECA. "We are very pleased to be partners with a company with the proven expertise of Black Stone, and committed to making this a win-win transaction," says John Mork, chief executive of ECA. "The proceeds from this sale will allow ECA to repay outstanding debts and invest in future exploration, development and production." Thomas L. Carter Jr., president of Black Stone, says, "This acquisition is a major step forward for Black Stone. We like the properties, which have historically had stable production profiles and productive lives in excess of 25 years. The properties complement our existing portfolio of assets and are consistent with the business model that we have established that is intended to earn our investors and limited partners superior returns." • Equitable Resources Inc., Pittsburgh, (NYSE: EQT) has closed the sale of noncore gas properties to NCL Appalachian Partners, a partnership of Locin Oil Corp. and GE Commercial Finance Energy Financial Services. The sale included an estimated 66 billion cu. ft. of proved reserves, of which approximately 59 billion cu. ft. were developed, for $147 million. Equitable was advised by Petrie Parkman & Co. • Occidental Petroleum Corp., Los Angeles, (NYSE: OXY) has acquired an interest in oil and gas production from ExxonMobil in the Permian Basin of West Texas for approximately $972 million. The acquired production is primarily from the Salt Creek, Sharon Ridge and Dollarhide fields. The ExxonMobil transaction combined with another potential transaction currently being negotiated to acquire additional Permian interests and two smaller completed Permian acquisitions are expected to result in total proved reserve additions of at least 130 million BOE. Occidental expects to sell certain of the acquired assets that do not fit its Permian portfolio. These transactions are expected to add approximately 26,000 net BOE per day to Occidental's 2005 production exit rate. "When combined with our first-quarter 2005 production rate of 565,000 equivalent barrels per day, production from these acquisitions will put us well within reach of the exit rate of 600,000 equivalent barrels which we announced early this year," says Ray R. Irani, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Occidental. "Moreover, these transactions further strengthen our industry-leading position in the Permian Basin and are consistent with our strategy of focusing on large, long-lived assets in our core geographic areas." • Calpine Corp., San Jose, Calif., (NYSE: CPN) may sell its U.S. gas upstream assets. The assets are primarily in the Sacramento Basin of California, south Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, with additional activity in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. As of year-end 2004, the company had 389 billion cu. ft. equivalent of proved gas reserves. Calpine's natural gas land interests include 386,674 net developed and undeveloped acres. The company's assets currently produce approximately 90 million cu. ft. equivalent per day from 607 net wells. Proceeds would be used in accordance with Calpine's existing bond indentures. • Questar Corp., Salt Lake City, (NYSE: STR) subsidiaries Questar Exploration and Production Co. and Questar Gas Management Co. have entered into agreements with the Ute Native American tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation to explore for, develop, produce and gather gas on tribal lands in the Uinta Basin of northeastern Utah. Questar E&P has signed an exploration and development agreement on a large block of tribal minerals in the Wolf Flat area. Separately, management is planning to form a joint venture to construct, own and operate a gas-gathering system that will serve Wolf Flat and other areas in the Uinta Basin. The deal covers 12,557 acres of tribal minerals in the Wolf Flat area adjacent to the company's recently completed Flat Rock 9P-36-14-19 well in Section 36, T 14 S -R 19 E. The well was drilled to a total depth of 12,453 feet in late 2004 and is currently producing approximately 5 million cu. ft. of gas per day from multiple pay zones in the Entrada, Morrison, Cedar Mountain and Dakota formations. Additional productive intervals remain isolated beneath a drillable composite frac plug. Questar E&P has a 100% working interest in the Flat Rock well. Questar E&P is committed to drill one well on the new acreage this summer and, after acquiring new 2-D seismic data on the lands, has a continuous option to drill additional wells to earn mineral-development leases on tribal lands. The Ute tribe has the right to participate with up to a 50% working interest. Questar, the Ute tribe and FIML Natural Resources LLC plan to form a joint-venture company to construct, own and operate a gas-gathering system on tribal and other lands in the southern portion of the Uinta Basin. The new system will serve an area between townships 10 to 21 South and ranges 17 to 22 East, Salt Lake Meridian. Gathered volumes will be redelivered to interstate pipelines operated by Questar Pipeline Co., Northwest Pipeline and Colorado Interstate Gas. "Questar is excited about the opportunities created by these agreements, and we look forward to working with the Ute Indian Tribe," says Chuck Stanley, president and chief executive of Questar E&P and Gas Management. "The Wolf Flat EDA lands cover highly prospective multiple-target trends...." The joint venture may create a midstream hub centered on core Questar assets at Red Wash and Wonsits Valley. Maxine Natchees, chairman of the Ute tribe, says, "The business committee of the tribe is taking a much more active and aggressive role in managing its vast natural resources with guidance provided by John Jurrius, the tribe's financial advisor. The two transactions announced here are very important to the tribe in its quest to provide financial independence to future generations of tribal members. Questar is an ideal partner with whom we hope to pursue many more business opportunities." The Ute tribe resides on the 1.4-million-acre Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation in northeastern Utah. Three bands of Utes comprise the tribe: the Whiteriver, the Uncompahgre and the Uintah. There are 3,146 tribal members, of which about half currently reside on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation. • Chesapeake Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, (NYSE: CHK) has agreed to an equity investment in Delta Petroleum Corp., Denver, (Nasdaq: DPTR) subsidiary DHS Drilling Co. Financial details of the arrangement were not disclosed. Chesapeake will own 45% of the company; Delta Petroleum, 49.5%; and Bill Sauer and Harold Hastings will have a combined ownership of 5.5%. Sauer and Hastings are managers of DHS and the former managers of Sauer Drilling Co.