Acquisitions and Divestments (“A&D”) are a key component in business as they help to replenish our inventory of development prospects targeted through our capital development program and also help to grow our asset base. We maintain a disciplined approach in our acquisition strategy as we look to maintain the quality of our overall portfolio and achieve the highest possible economic return.

We recognize the need to focus our efforts and capital spending on existing core properties while we expand our interests in key resource plays. Given that, we have identified up to 14,000 BOE/day of non-core conventional oil and gas production in western Canada for sale. We have established minimum price thresholds on these assets and depending on the value we see in the marketplace, there is no guarantee that all of these properties will be sold in 2010. We anticipate these non-core properties will be sold in multiple packages. The first package is currently being marketed by FirstEnergy Capital Corp.  

Other recent activities include:

- September 1, 2009 - We acquired an average 21.5% working interest in over 540,000 gross acres of land in the Marcellus shale region in the northeastern United States from Chief Oil and Gas ("Chief"). Total consideration for this interest was approximately US$411 million, consisting of an upfront payment of US$164 million that was paid upon closing and US$247 million to be paid as a carry of 50% of Chief's future drilling and completion costs in the Marcellus shale play, which we expect will be invested over the next four years. Our net production at the time of the transaction was approximately 1.8 MMcf/day, with line of sight to approximately 100 MMcf/day within the next five years. Our internal assessment has identified over 1.4 trillion cubic feet of best estimate contingent resources on these lands, net to Enerplus, which would almost double the proved plus probably natural gas reserves we currently have booked. For more details on our Marcellus shale gas play and this acquisition, click here.

For a more detailed review of our A&D as well as our equity investment strategy, please click here for our Annual Information Form.