Murphy sticks to British Columbia

One of the trail-blazers in opening up the natural gas resources of northeastern British Columbia, Murphy Oil is remaining loyal to the region.

Through a wholly owned subsidiary, the Arkansas-based company is paying C$155 million for the interests of Bear Ridge Resources in the Tupper area, an undeveloped gas play.

The transaction will give Murphy access to almost 22,000 acres of net land where Bear Ridge has drilled five net wells, four of them completed and one awaiting completion and testing. None of the wells is yet producing.

Bear Ridge has spent about C$33.5 million on the Tupper assets.

Separately, Bear Ridge has merged with Sabretooth Energy to create a new company operating under the Sabretooth name.

Its primary focus will be on the Peace River Arch area which straddles the northern British Columbia-Alberta border and is rated as a low-risk multi-zone drilling prospect.

The merged entity will start out with production of 3,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (87 percent weighted to gas), about 7 million boe of proved and probable reserves and 155,000 net undeveloped acres.

—Gary Park