WESTPORT RESOURCES CORP. /Denver, Colorado Driller's Recent Buyout Should Fuel Big Growth.(THE NEW AMERICA)

Byline: Alan R. Elliott

When the moon rises and the owls quiet down along the Rocky Mountain range, you can almost hear the gas and oil deals being struck.

The most recent announcement came June 9, when Westport Resources Corp. said it would buy Belco Oil & Gas Corp. in a deal valued at $922 million. New York-based Belco owns and operates properties from North Dakota to Texas. Its holdings in the Rockies include 1.3 million undeveloped acres.

"Certainly the (Rocky Mountain properties) were a key element of what Belco brought to the table," said Donald Wolf, Westport's chief executive. "The industry generally looks to the Rockies as a big supplier of gas in the future, so this supplements and puts us strongly in the Rocky Mountains gas play."

He's right about the lure of the Rockies. Over the past few months, energy firms have cut deals at a breakneck pace. In March, Royal Dutch/Shell Group attempted a hostile takeover of Barrett Resources Corp. Barrett instead accepted a $2.8 billion buyout offer from Williams Cos.

Then last month, Kerr-McGee Corp. announced plans to buy HS Resources Inc. for $1.3 billion. Ninety-seven percent of HS' reserves are in the Rockies.

Westport's deal is expected to close during the third quarter. It expands the firm's reserves from 454 billion cubic feet to 1.2 trillion. About 52% of that is gas, the rest oil. Production will grow from 179 million cubic feet a day to 346 million.