Benton Oil and Gas Company Completes Acquisition of 40% Stake in East Urengoy Gas Project.CARPINTERIA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--August 11, 1998--Benton Oil and Gas Company (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :BNO BNO Beroepsorganisatie Nederlandse Ontwerpers BNO Boys' Night Out (band) BNO Boyz Nite Out BNO Big Night Out (band) BNO Bau- und Nutzungsordnung BNO Baksan Neutrino Observatory ) today announced that it has received all the shares related to the Company's acquisition of a 40% equity interest in the Russian Open Joint Stock Company Severneftegaz. As originally announced in April 1998, Benton had executed agreements to receive the 40% equity interest in exchange for committing to provide the initial capital to develop the oil and gas reserves owned by Severneftegaz. The capital will be provided in the form of a $100 million project loan, which is planned to be disbursed over the initial two-year development phase. The acquired shares of Severneftegaz initially bear certain sale and transfer restrictions. Severneftegaz owns the exclusive rights to evaluate, develop and produce the natural gas, condensate condensate, matter in the form of a gas of atoms, molecules, or elementary particles that have been so chilled that their motion is virtually halted and as a consequence they lose their separate identities and merge into a single entity. , and oil reserves Oil reserves refer to portions of oil in place that are claimed to be recoverable under economic constraints. Oil in the ground is not a "reserve" unless it is claimed to be economically recoverable, since as the oil is extracted, the cost of recovery increases incrementally in the Samburg and Evo-Yakha license blocks. The two blocks comprise 837,000 acres within and adjacent to the Urengoy field, Russia's largest producing natural gas field. As reported earlier, reserves in the two license blocks have been identified and delineated de·lin·e·ate tr.v. de·lin·e·at·ed, de·lin·e·at·ing, de·lin·e·ates 1. To draw or trace the outline of; sketch out. 2. To represent pictorially; depict. 3. through the 94 wells already drilled on the acreage. Severneftegaz and Russian engineers have estimated the recoverable reserves in the two blocks total 17.9 trillion One thousand times one billion, which is 1, followed by 12 zeros, or 10 to the 12th power. See space/time. (mathematics) trillion - In Britain, France, and Germany, 10^18 or a million cubed. In the USA and Canada, 10^12. cubic feet of natural gas, 794 million barrels of condensate, and 1.2 billion barrels of oil. Major natural gas and condensate pipelines and other infrastructure associated with the giant Urengoy gas field For other uses of "Urengoy", see Urengoy (disambiguation). Urengoy gas field is the world's second largest natural gas field, with over ten trillion cubic meters (10¹³ m³) in total deposits. are already in place. A.E. Benton, Chairman, President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Benton Oil and Gas Company stated, "We are pleased to announce the closing of this important transaction. We plan to move forward with the testing of a previously drilled well later this year, and anticipate commercial gas and condensate production and sales in late 1999." "This project represents the second major development project in Russia for Benton Oil and Gas," stated Mr. Benton. "The Company also owns a 34% equity stake on the 350 million barrel oil development project Geoilbent, located about 100 miles south of the East Urengoy Project." Benton Oil and Gas Company, headquartered in Carpinteria, Calif., is an independent oil and gas exploration and development company with operations worldwide. This press release may contain "Forward-Looking Statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. " within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this release may constitute forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Actual results may differ materially from the Company's expectations due to changes in operating performance, project schedules, oil and gas demands and prices, and other technical and economical factors.
CONTACT: Benton Oil and Gas Company, Carpinteria
Linda Blount-Strauss, 805/566-5600
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