Memorial Production Partners to Acquire Oil and Gas Properties from Rise Energy Partners for $271M

Memorial Production Partners LP MEMP announced Monday that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire certain oil and gas producing properties offshore Southern California from Rise Energy Partners, LP for a purchase price of $271 million, which includes $3 million of working capital and other customary adjustments. This transaction will have an effective date of September 1, 2012 and is expected to close in December 2012. Terms of the transaction were approved by the Board of Directors of the general partner of MEMP and by the Board's conflicts committee, which is comprised entirely of independent directors. Subject to the closing of this transaction, the Board of Directors of MEMP's general partner approved an increase in the distribution rate to $0.5075 per unit for the fourth quarter of 2012. This distribution rate will represent an annualized amount of $2.03 per unit and a 6.8% increase over the annualized minimum quarterly distribution of $1.90 per unit, as well as a 2.5% increase over the third quarter annualized distribution of $1.98 per unit. The properties to be acquired, which we refer to as the Beta properties, primarily consist of a 51.75% working interest in three Pacific See full press release