Contango Oil & Gas Company announces that the previously announced sale of its Eastern Core Fayetteville Shale properties to XTO Energy Inc. closed on January 30, 2008. The Company received a total of approximately $128 million and intends to use the proceeds to finance the purchase of producing properties utilizing a 1031 like-kind exchange structure.
Kenneth R. Peak, the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “We have already begun the process to invest our estimated $109 million in taxable proceeds in a like-kind exchange. In the meantime, our proceeds will be invested at a rate of 3.5%. The Alta Energy team, led by Joe Greenberg, Richard Grigsby and Jenny McCarthy, has done an outstanding job of identifying this play, and executing a strategy to create enormous value in a very short time. I’m sure all Contango shareholders join me in thanking and congratulating them for our mutual success.”
