Lime Rock Resources Announces $130 Million Acquisition of Oil and Gas Properties in New Mexico

1/10/2011

HOUSTON, January 10, 2011 — Lime Rock Resources, acquirers and operators of producing oil and gas properties in the United States, today announced that it has successfully closed the acquisition of oil and gas interests in the East Artesia areas of Lea and Eddy Counties, New Mexico for $130 million.  The properties were acquired from a publicly traded oil and gas company.  The Lime Rock Resources team assumed operations of over 350 producing wells in December 2010 and is beginning the assessment of development drilling and operational improvement projects.  The East Artesia acquisition represents the fifth major acquisition by the Lime Rock Resources team in New Mexico since 2006 and fourth since 2008.  The team now operates over 1,000 wells and produces over 5,000 barrels per day of oil and gas equivalent in New Mexico alone, making it one of the state’s top 20 producers.

The Lime Rock Resources team has made nearly $1 billion of acquisitions since its inception in 2005.

Eric Mullins, co-CEO of Lime Rock Resources, said, “We are happy to have had an opportunity to acquire the East Artesia properties, which we have now integrated into operations with our four previous acquisitions in southeast New Mexico.  The latest acquisition perfectly fits our strategy to acquire these lower-risk producing oil and gas properties in our core areas of operations.  Prior to completing this transaction, we had been in discussions with the seller for much of 2010 on how we could both optimize and rationalize our assets.  The final transaction, completed at a fair price in straightforward discussions, allowed both of us to achieve our goals.  We look forward to working with this and other sellers on similar mutually beneficial transactions.”

Charlie Adcock, co-CEO of Lime Rock Resources, added, “We seek to buy mature properties, often beneath the ideal scale for sellers to dedicate the manpower or strategic focus to work these lower-risk, lower-return fields to their fullest potential.  We then look to generate additional value from those fields by both having a strategy tailor-made for those types of assets and by buying properties in and around our existing operations.  This allows us to achieve efficiencies of scale and, just as important, apply the lessons we have learned in continuous development drilling and operational improvement projects in New Mexico since 2006.”

Established in 1998, Lime Rock manages $3.9 billion of private capital for investment in the energy industry through Lime Rock Resources, acquirers and operators of oil and gas properties, and Lime Rock Partners, investors of growth capital in energy companies worldwide.  With over $850 million under management and an estimated acquisition capacity of $1.5 billion, Lime Rock Resources acquires, operates, and improves producing oil and gas properties in the United States.  Based in Houston, the Lime Rock Resources team is acquiring a diverse group of proved oil and gas properties to provide its investors with attractive long-term returns.

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