Berry Petroleum, Bill Barrett form joint exploration venture

Independent producers Berry Petroleum and Bill Barrett have formed a joint venture to explore and develop Barrett’s 345,000 acre position located in the so-called Tri-State area of eastern Colorado, western Kansas and southwestern Nebraska, the companies said Jan. 25. Under terms of the deal, Berry has agreed to pay about $5 million for a 50 percent working interest in Barrett’s acreage. The primary target would be the Niobrara biogenic gas located in the shallow Niobrara formation.

“It provides us with a larger footprint in what will be Berry’s newest core producing asset, the Niobrara gas field,” said Robert Heinemann, Berry’s president and chief operating officer. The Barrett acreage is located just east of Berry’s pending acquisition of gas assets from J-W Operating, he added. A plan is under development to evaluate the total acreage, with Barrett initially conducting and operating seismic programs and the drilling of the first test wells. Berry would operate the wells once production was established. The first well is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2005.

The joint venture would apply seismic technologies to explore and, if successful, develop the Niobrara formation for biogenic gas, which lies at less than 2,000 feet, and apply seismic technologies to evaluate oil potential in the Pennsylvanian formations at depths of 4,000 to 4,800 feet, the companies said.

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