• Chesapeake Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, (NYSE: CHK) plans to acquire 19.9% of the common shares of Houston-based Gastar Exploration Ltd. (Toronto: YGA; Pink Sheets: GSREF) and a 33% working interest in Gastar's Deep Bossier play in the Hilltop prospect area of Leon and Robertson counties, East Texas. The companies plan to form an area of mutual interest to explore 13 counties in East Texas. Chesapeake will acquire some 26.9 million newly issued Gastar shares for approximately $2.80 each, totaling some $72 million, which Gastar will use to accelerate drilling in East Texas, reduce short-term debt and for general corporate purposes. The purchase price for the Deep Bossier play acreage is approximately $8.6 million in cash. Gastar will be the operator of all wells drilled in the Hilltop prospect. Gastar and Chesapeake will also form an area of mutual interest covering all of Leon, Robertson, Houston, Cherokee, Madison, Anderson, Angelina, Nacogdoches, Trinity, Polk, Shelby, San Augustine and Sabine counties, Texas. For three years after closing, Chesapeake will have the right to purchase up to 50% of any leasehold/working interest rights acquired by Gastar in the area. J. Russell Porter, Gastar president and chief executive, says the deal will fully fund Gastar's business plan through 2006. • Apache Corp., Houston, (NYSE: APA) will acquire the Amerada Hess Corp., New York City, (NYSE: AHC) interests in certain producing properties in the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico for $404 million. The interests are in eight fields, six operated. The deal is part of an Apache sale of interests in several Egyptian gas discoveries. Apache president and chief executive G. Steven Farris says, "The concurrent sale of our unbooked West Mediterranean reserves enables us to expand and accelerate our production base in the United States." • Encore Acquisition Co., Fort Worth, Texas (NYSE: EAC) plans to acquire properties in the Permian Basin of West Texas and the Anadarko Basin of Oklahoma from Kerr-McGee Corp., Oklahoma City, (NYSE: KMG) for $104 million. The transaction is expected to close in November. The properties are in the Levelland-Slaughter, Howard Glasscock, Nolley-McFarland and Hutex fields in West Texas and the Oakdale, Calumet and Rush Springs fields located in western Oklahoma. The acquisition includes estimated total proved reserves of 6.2 million BOE (94% oil; 69% proved developed producing) and wells that produce approximately 1,300 BOE per day. The reserve life is nine years. The fields are mature legacy waterfloods. Encore will pay about $16.77 per proved BOE. • Tremisis Energy Acquisition Corp., New York, (OTCBB: TEGY) plans to acquire privately held, Tulsa, Okla.-based Ram Energy Inc. for approximately $30 million in cash and 25.6 million shares of Tremisis. Ram has producing properties in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and onshore Louisiana and Mississippi. The company's estimated net proved reserves are 20.8 million BOE (58% oil), giving its properties an estimated reserve life of approximately 14 years. Ram also owns interests in approximately 2,900 producing wells and operates 1,950 of these. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2006. WestLB AG is advisor to Ram. • ATP Oil & Gas Corp., Houston, (Nasdaq: ATPG) has acquired substantially all of the Gulf of Mexico shelf properties of a privately held company for $40 million. Net production is 25 million cu. ft. of gas equivalent per day. ATP will be the operator of most of the acquired blocks. • Swift Energy Co., Houston, (NYSE: SFY) plans to purchase interests in South Bearhead Creek Field in Beauregard Parish, La., for approximately $24.5 million. The interests are 100% in the operated wells in the field and 25% in certain nonoperated wells. Swift estimates the acquisition includes total proved reserves of approximately 3.6 million BOE, giving the deal an all-in acquisition cost of $2.19 per thousand cu. ft. equivalent. Current production is less than 160 BOE per day (90% oil), net. • Berry Petroleum Co., Bakersfield, Calif., (NYSE: BRY) has purchased a 50% working interest in approximately 70,000 gross (60,000 net) undeveloped acres in Phillips and Sedgwick counties, Colorado, from Chandler Energy LLC. The leasehold is adjacent to Berry's producing assets in Yuma County. • Edge Petroleum Corp., Houston, (Nasdaq: EPEX) has entered agreements to acquire working interests ranging from 44% to 50% in the Chapman Ranch Field in Nueces County, Texas, for $62.8 million, from three private companies including Pearl Energy Partners Ltd. The assets include six producing wells, one well currently being drilled and an ownership in approximately 1,100 net acres of developed and undeveloped leasehold. The properties have estimated total proved reserves of approximately 14 billion cu. ft. of gas equivalent (96% gas). Current net daily production from the six wells is approximately 8.9 million cu. ft. of gas equivalent. • Reichmann Petroleum Corp., Grapevine, Texas, has completed a buyback from Marathon Oil (East Texas) LP of its 50% stake in 23,000 gross acres in the Barnett Shale for an undisclosed price. The acreage is in Denton, Erath, Johnson, Parker, Stevens, and Tarrant counties, Texas. Reichmann sold the 11,500 gross acres to Marathon in December 2004. Reichmann now has various interests in more than 70,000 acres in the Barnett Shale. • Unit Petroleum Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Unit Corp., Tulsa, Okla., (NYSE: UNT) plans to acquire oil and gas properties from a group of private entities for approximately $82.4 million in cash. The assets include approximately 42.5 billion cu. ft. of gas equivalent of proved reserves in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. The fields produce 6.5 million cu. ft. of gas equivalent per day. • Australia-based Santos Ltd. has completed the acquisition of Tipperary Corp., Denver, (Amex: TPY) for approximately US$466 million, including assumption of debt, consisting of US$7.41 per Tipperary share in cash. Tipperary was focused primarily on coalseam and conventional gas in Queensland, Australia. The assets include a 75.25% capital interest and a 71.7% pre-royalty revenue interest in southeastern Queensland's Comet Ridge coalseam gas project totaling approximately 1.23 million acres and other exploration permits in Queensland totaling approximately 77,000 acres. Tipperary also holds interests in several exploration projects in Colorado and Nebraska covering approximately 623,000 acres. Slough Estates USA Inc. owned 54% of Tipperary common stock. Tipperary's financial advisor for the transaction was Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin. Petrie Parkman & Co. was financial advisor to Slough. Merrill Lynch was financial advisor to Santos. • Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corp., Oklahoma City, (NYSE: KMG) has acquired a 25% interest in the southern part of Block 2(c) retained exploration area and a 30% interest in Block 3(a), offshore Trinidad and Tobago. The blocks are adjacent to the Angostura Field in depths ranging from 150 to 300 feet of water. Partners in Block 2(c) are BHP Billiton (39% working interest) and Talisman Energy (36%). Partners in Block 3(a) are BHP Billiton (30% working interest), Talisman (30%) and Total SA (10%). BHP Billiton operates both blocks. With the addition of these blocks, Kerr-McGee holds interests in more than 340,000 gross acres offshore Trinidad and Tobago. • Talisman Energy Resources Ltd., a subsidiary of Talisman Energy Inc., Calgary, (Toronto, NYSE: TLM) plans to acquire U.K.-based Paladin Resources Plc for approximately C$2.5 billion. Paladin's assets are predominantly in the North Sea, as well as in Australia, Indonesia and Tunisia. The company also has exploration acreage in Gabon and Romania. Some 51.3 million Paladin shares are held by Aberforth Partners and Caledonia Investments. Goldman, Sachs & Co. is advisor to Talisman. Morgan Stanley analyst Lloyd Byrne says, "Strategically, the transaction complements Talisman's existing asset base in the North Sea and provides it with additional growth opportunities." • China-based CNPC International Ltd. has completed the acquisition of PetroKazakhstan Inc., Calgary, (NYSE: PKZ) for US$55 per share in cash, giving the transaction a total value of approximately US$4.18 billion. PetroKazakhstan is now an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of CNPC. Bernard F. Isautier, chairman, president and chief executive officer of PetroKazakhstan, says, "CNPC has acquired a business full of opportunities and with high-caliber employees. We wish them future success in Kazakhstan." PetroKazakhstan has operations in the South Turgai Basin in south-central Kazakhstan. Goldman Sachs International was financial advisor to PetroKazakhstan.