Vanguard Natural Resources to acquire Antero Resources for $445 million

US oil and gas producer Vanguard Natural Resources is acquiring natural gas and liquids assets from Antero Resources Corp for $445 million in order to expand its assets portfolio in the Arkoma Basin in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Vanguard, which focuses on acquiring, producing and developing oil and natural gas properties, said this was "a great time" to purchase natural gas assets in the US as prices have plummeted down to the lowest in a decade due to abundance of gas supplies.
 
Houston, Texas-based Vanguard is acquiring about 66,000 net acres in the Woodford Shale play and 5,300 net acres in the Fayetteville Shale play. The assets contain an estimated 251 Bcfe of proved developed reserves as of 31 March 2012 and have net production of about 76 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent per day (mmcfe/d).

Vanguard noted that these assets are expected to generate superior returns even in a low gas price environment.
 
Scott Smith, president and CEO of Vanguard said, ''As we stated on our last conference call, we believe it's a great time to purchase natural gas assets and we believe this transaction will prove to be an excellent addition to our portfolio.''
 
''This acquisition is primarily natural gas with some associated liquids and has an existing hedge book that will allow us to achieve above market pricing for the next several years. With this acquisition, we have established a new operating area which we believe has potential for future growth through other acquisitions as well as development drilling as natural gas prices improve.''
 
Vanguard's assets consist primarily of producing and non-producing oil and natural gas reserves located in the Permian Basin, South Texas, Mississippi, Big Horn Basin in Wyoming and Montana, the Williston Basin in North Dakota and Montana and the Arkoma Basin in Arkansas and Oklahoma.