Lario Oil & Gas Company has acquired, in conjunction with an undisclosed partner, approximately 23,000 net acres of highly prospective rights targeting the Bakken and Three Forks formations, primarily in the Little Knife Field in Dunn and Stark Counties, North Dakota, from Rocky Mountain Exploration, Inc., a privately held exploration company based in Denver. The acquisition closed on September 23, for an undisclosed sales price, with an effective date of July 1, 2010.

This acquisition brings Lario's total regional holdings to more than 250,000 gross and 49,182 net acres in the Bakken and Three Forks formations in North Dakota, Montana and Saskatchewan, Canada. The majority of this acreage is held by production. Lario's Bakken and Three Forks production is currently estimated to be 3,000 net barrels of oil per day (BOPD).

The acquisition includes interests in more than 36 Bakken and Three Forks wells as well as numerous PUDs and offsetting acreage. Current production from these properties is approximately 100 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOEPD). Tracker Resource Development will operate the properties. Recent discoveries in the immediate vicinity include Tracker's Wing 15-1H well in the Little Knife Field, with a 24-hour peak rate of 1,643 BOEPD; and Tracker's Murphy 11-1H well in the Murphy Creek Field, which had a peak rate of 1,934 BOEPD.

'Lario has made tremendous progress towards our 2010 strategic growth goals in the first three quarters of the year,' noted Mike O'Shaughnessy, Lario President, based in the Denver office. 'We now hold significant positions in two of the best liquids-rich resource plays in North America - the Bakken in the U.S. and Canadian Williston Basin and the Niobrara light oil play in the Colorado DJ Basin. We will leverage our existing assets to expand our lease and locations portfolio to ensure continued growth and success, as Lario enters our 84th year of operations.'

Tags: Lario Oil & Gas Company