Gulfport Energy Corp. (GPOR) said Sept. 8 it completed its acquisition of EnCap-backed Paloma Partners III LLC for $301.9 million.

Oklahoma City's Gulfport funded the acquisition, which closed on Aug. 31, with proceeds from completed debt offerings.

Paloma is a subsidiary of Macquarie Group. The Houston-based company holds roughly 24,000 net nonproducing acres in the core of the dry gas window of the Utica Shale in Belmont and Jefferson counties, Ohio.

The acquisition equates to about $12,700 per acre and brings Gulfport's Utica acreage position to 212,000 gross (208,000 net) acres.

The acreage overlaps with a number of Gulfport's currently planned units. It's also located in the vicinity of existing interstate pipelines with gathering and compression infrastructure already under development.

Gulfport said it currently intends to move one rig to operate on this acreage beginning in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The company also said the Bank of Nova Scotia will recommend to the lending syndicate an increase of the company's borrowing base to $700 million from $575 million. The Bank of Nova Scotia is sole lead arranger and administrative agent of the company's credit facility.

Pro forma for the proposed increase, Gulfport said it has about $607.3 million of availability under its revolving credit facility.