UNITED
STATES
SECURITIES
AND EXCHANGE
COMMISSION
Washington,
D.C.
20549
FORM
8-K
CURRENT
REPORT
Pursuant
to Section 13 or 15(d)
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Date
of
Report (Date of earliest event reported): February 7, 2008
BERRY
PETROLEUM
COMPANY
(Exact
Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)
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DELAWARE
(State
or Other Jurisdiction of
Incorporation
or Organization)
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1-9735
(Commission
File Number)
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77-0079387
(IRS
Employer
Identification
Number)
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5201
TRUXTUN AVE., STE. 300,
BAKERSFIELD, CA
(Address
of Principal Executive Offices)
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93309
(Zip
Code)
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Registrant’s
telephone number, including area code: (661)
616-3900
Check
the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously
satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following
provisions:
o
Written
communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR
230.425)
o
Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR
240.14a-12)
o
Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the
Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))
o
Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the
Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))
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1
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Item
2.02 Results of Operations
and Financial Condition
On
February 7,
2008, Berry Petroleum Company (the “Company”) issued a press release announcing
certain operational results for the year ended December 31, 2007. A copy
of the Company’s press release is attached hereto as
Exhibit 99.1.
The
information
furnished under Item 2.02 of this Current Report on Form 8-K and the
exhibit attached hereto shall not be deemed to be "filed" for the purposes
of
Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or otherwise
subject to the liabilities of that section. It may only be incorporated by
reference in another filing under the Exchange Act or Securities Act of 1933,
as
amended, if such subsequent filing specifically references this
Form 8-K.
Item
9.01
Financial
Statements and Exhibits
(d)
Exhibits
99.1
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News Release by Berry Petroleum Company dated February 7, 2008, titled
"Berry
Petroleum Replaces 293% of 2007 Production and Increases Proved Reserves
by 13%
to 169 MMBOE" announcing the Registrant's proved reserves and
related measures for the year ended December 31, 2007.
SIGNATURES
Pursuant
to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant
has
duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereto
duly authorized.
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BERRY
PETROLEUM
COMPANY
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By:
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/s/ Kenneth
A.
Olson
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Kenneth
A. Olson
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Corporate
Secretary
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Date: February
7, 2008
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2
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Berry
Petroleum Company News
Contact:
Berry Petroleum Company
5201
Truxtun Ave., Ste.
300
Bakersfield,
CA 93309
1-661-616-3900
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Contacts:
Robert F. Heinemann, President and CEO - - Ralph J. Goehring, Executive
Vice President and CFO
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BerryPetroleum
Replaces
293% of 2007 Production and
Increases Proved Reserves by 13% to 169 MMBOE
Achieves
One Year Finding &
Development Cost of $10.07 per BOE
Bakersfield,
Calif.--(BUSINESS
WIRE)--February 7, 2008 -
Berry Petroleum Company (NYSE:BRY)
announced that estimated proved oil
and gas reserves increased by 13% to 169 million barrels of oil equivalent
(BOE)
as of December 31,
2007. In 2007, Berry
added
35.4 million BOE at a finding and development cost of $10.07per
BOE(see reconciliation
below)and replaced
293% of the 9.8 million BOE
(26,900 BOE per day) it produced in 2007.
Robert
Heinemann, president and chief
executive officer, stated, “Organic growthprovided
the increasein
our proved reserves for
2007as we had an
extensive
development program that added proved reserves in five of our six core
asset
areas. We booked an
estimated 13.1million
BOEin proved reservesfrom
our Piceance
development, and given our
large inventory there, we expect to add significant proved reserves
for several
years to this asset. In California,
we addedapproximately
14.3million
BOE mostly from our
N. Midway Diatomite,
Poso Creek and Ethel D assets, and in
the Rockies,our
Uinta and DJ development activities
added another8.0million
BOE.”
At
year-end 2007, the Company’s reserve
mix includes 117 million barrels of crude oil, condensate and natural
gas
liquids, and 316 billion cubic feet of natural gas, or 69% oil
and 31% natural
gas. Geographically,
60%
of proved reserves are in Californiaand
40%
in the Rocky Mountainregion.
The Company’s year-end
reserves-to-production ratio increased slightly to 16.5
years, based on annualized
fourth quarter
2007 average daily production. Proved developed
reserves represent
61% of total proved reserves.
Berry
calculatedits
year-end 2007 proved reserves using
year-end 2007 commodity prices of $95.98per
Bbl of oil (WTI)and a Henry
Hub price of $7.48per
MMBtu of natural gas(both based on
their respective NYMEX
prices), adjusted by
field
differentials
to
arrive at the net price received by
the Company as of December
31, 2007. Berry’s
average net price used in
itsreserve
report is approximately
$79.19per
Bbl of oil and liquids and
$6.27per
Mcf of natural gas. The estimated
discounted net present value using
a 10% annualdiscount
rate, or PV-10,
of
Berry’s proved reserves at December
31, 2007, was
$3.5billion ($2.4billion
after-tax), compared to
$1.6billion ($1.2
billion after-tax) in 2006.
Following
is a reconciliation of the
Company’s proved oil and natural gas reserve quantities between December 31,
2006 and December 31, 2007:
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MMBOE
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Balance
at 12/31/2006
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150.3 | |||
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Net
sale of proved
reserves
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( 6.7 | ) | ||
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Extensions,
discoveries, enhanced
recoveries, and other revisions
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35.4 | |||
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2007
production
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( 9.8 | ) | ||
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Balance
at 12/31/2007
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169.2 | |||
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Finding
&
Development
Cost Supporting
Schedule
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All
expenditure amounts below are estimates
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(Amounts
in millions)
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One
Year
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Three
Year
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Acquisition
Costs
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$ | 56.25 | $ | 436.01 | ||||
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Exploration
costs
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0.7 | 21.46 | ||||||
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Development
Costs
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281.7 | 671.56 | ||||||
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Other
Costs
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18.1 | 27.4 | ||||||
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Net
expenditures
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$ | 356.75 | $ | 1,156.43 | ||||
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Total
reserves added, excluding production (MMBOE)
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35.44 | 94.57 | ||||||
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Estimated
finding & development cost per BOE
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$ | 10.07 | $ | 12.23 | ||||
About
Berry Petroleum
Company
Berry
Petroleum Company is a publicly
traded independent oil and gas production and exploitation company
with its
headquarters in Bakersfield,
California.
Safe
harbor under the “Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995”
Any
statements in this news release that
are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that involve
risks and
uncertaintiesand
words
such as “expect,”
and
forms of those words and others
indicate forward-looking statements.Important factors
which could affect
actual results are discussed in PART 1, Item 1A. Risk Factors of Berry's
2006
Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 28,
2007under the heading
"Other Factors
Affecting the Company's Business and Financial Results" in the section
titled
"Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results
of
Operations and all material changes are updated in Part II, Item 1A
within our
Form 10-Qs filed subsequent to that date."
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