Anadarko Petroleum Corp., the largest producer in Colorado’s Wattenberg field, has purchased a gas-processing plant in Adams County from BP for $575.5 million, the companies said Tuesday.
The BP sale follows the $300 million purchase of EnCana Corp.’s Platte Valley processing plant by Western Gas Partners, a limited partnership set up by The Woodlands, Texas-based Anadarko.
The purchases are aimed at giving Anadarko, the second-largest independent oil-and-gas company in the country, flexibility and growth opportunities in Colorado, company executives said.
BP no longer has any oil or gas production in the Wattenberg, which is centered on Weld County, said company spokesman Daren Beaudo.
The processing plant is on Powhaton Road north of East Smith Road.
“It is a pretty intelligent strategy,” said Ward Polzin, managing director at energy investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.
“They are seeing the opportunity in the midstream, processing gas, as well as upstream,” in production, Polzin said.
Gas-processing plants separate petroleum liquids from natural gas and prepare the products for pipeline shipment.
Anadarko’s current sales of oil and gas are equivalent to about 63,000 barrels a day, the company said.
Anadarko’s initial exploration in the potentially oil-rich Niobrara formation is “very encouraging,” Chuck Meloy, a company senior vice president, said in a statement.
“With the anticipated growth,” Meloy said, “. . . we expect this acquisition to improve field recoveries, allow for future expansion and capture efficiencies that enable us to reduce operating expenses.”
Anadarko has about 900,000 acres in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, which includes the Wattenberg, and expects to be running nine rigs in the basin by the end of the month, the company said.
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com
