XTO buys Barnett Shale acres

FORT WORTH, Texas, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Fort Worth, Texas-based XTO Energy said it acquired 24,000 acres in the Barnett Shale.

The company paid $550 million for the leases with estimated proven reserves of more than 200 billion cubic feet of natural gas and daily production of about 25 million cubic feet a day in gas equivalents.

XTO already has other drilling sites on the field and said there are between 300 and 350 additional locations where future drilling could occur, possibly doubling reserves.

The company said during the fourth quarter it expects to produce more than 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent daily, with nearly half of that at an average price of $8.97 per 1,000 cubic feet.