Range Completes Barnett Acquisition and Sale of Non-Core Properties

Range Resources

Range Resources has completed the previously announced acquisition of Barnett shale properties from a subsidiary of DTE Energy Co. and a private company. The adjusted purchase price was $284 million. With closing of this transaction, Range's position in the Barnett Shale play has expanded to 103,000 net acres and production has increased to more than 90 Mmcfe per day.

Range also has sold non-core oil properties located in East Texas for $64 million. The properties include 99 shallow oil wells covering 5,600 net acres. Range did not own the leasehold rights to the deeper formations. The properties were producing approximately 700 barrels per day at the time of the sale. The sale was structured as a like-kind exchange, therefore Range has deferred any cash taxes as a result of the transaction.

Commenting on the announcement, John Pinkerton, Range's President and CEO said, "The Barnett Shale properties are an excellent complement to our growing position in the play. The purchase coupled with the property sale high grades our overall property base. Our strategy is to periodically sell non-core properties. Including the sale announced today, we have completed approximately $300 million of property sales in the last 12 months. We anticipate additional divestitures in 2008. Given our extensive drilling inventory that includes more than 10,000 locations covering in excess of 3 million acres, we are in an excellent position to generate very attractive returns. By divesting of non-core properties, we can increase the capital available to accelerate the exploitation of our drilling inventory. We believe this enhances the per share investment in Range."


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