Operations
LINN Energy is an independent oil and natural gas development company. At year-end 2008, the Company had approximately 1.7 Tcfe of proved reserves with a reserve-life index of more than 20 years in producing U.S. basins. We have almost 7,000 producing oil and natural gas wells and a large inventory of more than 4,000 engineered drilling locations. Our core areas of operation are the Mid-Continent, California and the Permian Basin, and we continuously look for opportunities to grow through the acquisition of long-life, low-risk domestic assets that complement our extensive portfolio.
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Mid-Continent
LINN Energy’s largest area of operations is in the Mid-Continent, where LINN develops oil and natural gas from both deep and shallow formations. Our Mid-Continent Deep region includes the Texas Panhandle Granite Wash formation and deep formations in Oklahoma and Kansas. Our Mid-Continent Shallow region includes the Texas Panhandle Brown Dolomite formation and shallow formations in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Illinois.
California
Our California operations are located in the Brea Olinda Field of the Los Angeles Basin. This is primarily an oil asset with a very low decline rate of approximately 3 percent per year and a reserve life index of approximately 40 years. The field was discovered in 1880 and produces from the shallow Pliocene formation and the deeper Miocene formation at depths of 1,000 feet to 7,500 feet. LINN has proved reserves in the area of 219 Bcfe, which are more than 85 percent proved developed and represented approximately 13 percent of our total proved reserves at year-end 2008. Production was 13 MMcfe/d in 2008, or 6 percent of our companywide total.
Permian Basin
The Permian Basin is one of the largest and most prolific oil and natural gas basins in the United States. LINN Energy announced a strategic entry into the Permian Basin in 2009 through three acquisitions of producing oil properties in West Texas and Southeast New Mexico. Acquired Permian assets added approximately 21 MMBoe of long-life, proved reserves to LINN’s portfolio. The reserves are approximately 86 percent oil and 68 percent proved developed. These assets include more than 250 low-risk oil projects, and we believe we will be able to capitalize on bolt-on acquisition opportunities to grow this area.