Tennessee-based Miller Petroleum, doing business as Miller Energy Resources, says it has completed an agreement to purchase the assets of Cook Inlet Energy LLC for $875,000. According to a recent SEC filing by Miller, the deal is contingent “upon the successful purchase, by Cook Inlet Energy LLC of certain Alaska oil and gas assets from the Bankruptcy Estate of Pacific Energy Resources Ltd.”
The deal is scheduled to close Nov. 4, a day after the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware is expected to rule on an Oct. 14 motion by Pacific Energy’s attorneys to sell the assets to a firm called Cook Inlet Energy LLC.
Cook Inlet Energy’s proposed price is $875,000 plus other considerations that would be helpful to Pacific Energy, the motion says.
In a press release dated Oct. 26, Miller describes the Alaska Cook Inlet assets as “$115 million in oil and natural gas reserves, 600,000 lease acres with potential additional reserves based upon $8.5 million in completed 3D seismic geology, and numerous production facilities valued at almost $200 million.”
According to Miller’s Form 8-K Oct. 16 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Miller would purchase “100 percent of the membership interests of Cook Inlet Energy LLC in exchange for stock purchase warrants to purchase Miller Petroleum Inc.’s common stock.”
Scott Boruff, CEO of Miller Petroleum, was quoted in the Oct. 26 press release as saying, “This is the third and largest major acquisition of my short tenure at Miller. It increases our reserves by 30 fold and significantly strengthens our balance sheet for less than one million dollars. We hit it out of the park on this one.
“Our institutional partners have given us the green light for further acquisitions. This is one of many substantial opportunities that we anticipate closing in the coming months.”
According to Miller’s Web site, the company was formed by Deloy Miller in 1967, and became a publicly held company in 1997, with corporate headquarters in Knoxville and a satellite field office in Huntsville.
Visit its Web site at www.millerenergyresources.com.
See story in Nov. 1 issue, available online at noon, Friday Oct. 30, at www.PetroleumNews.com
