Venoco, Inc. announced the sale of three separate producing oil and gas fields from its United States portfolio. The company will receive a total of $100 million from the sales and expects a closing by May 2010.

The company sold its interests in the Manvel Field in Texas, an overriding royalty interest in the Hastings Field, also in Texas, and some minor acreage in the Texas Gulf Coast area.

Venoco, Inc. will use the proceeds to invest in its operations in California. Tim Marquez, the CEO of Venoco, Inc. said, “We are very pleased with the level of interest in these assets and with the value we’ll receive. We will now redeploy capital to concentrate on our very exciting opportunities in California.”

Venoco, Inc. will also increase capital spending in 2010 by $40 million, from $180 million to $220 million. The company will spend $48 million to drill 10 horizontal wells in the Monterey Shale in California.

In the Sacramento Basin, also in California, Venoco, Inc. will spend $108 million to drill 100 new wells and recomplete an additional 250 wells. The company will also drill 3 wells in the West Montalvo field in Southern California.

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