ZaZa Energy and Toreador Resources have agreed to a merger that will create a new public company that will trade on the NASDAQ under the symbol ZAZA. This is an interesting merger in that both companies are rumored to have joint venture agreements with Hess - ZaZa on its Eagle Ford acreage and Toreador on its Paris Basin acreage. The new ZaZa will bring the two partnerships under one roof. ZaZa's Eagle Ford Shale properties will provide a drilling inventory that gives the new company time to fully assess Toreador's Paris Basin assets. The French aren't real excited about hydraulic fracturing and the current fracking ban makes drilling in the Liassic shale more of a question than a plan. 

Toreador Resources Corporation (NASDAQ:TRGL) (Paris: TOR) (“Toreador”) and ZaZa Energy, LLC (“ZaZa”), a privately held oil and gas company based in Houston, Texas, today announced that on August 9, 2011, they signed a definitive agreement to combine the companies. The combined portfolio comprises three areas – the Eagle Ford core and the emerging Eagle Ford/Woodbine (“Eaglebine”) resource plays in Texas and the Paris Basin in France with a current total of 423,000 net acres. Both the Eagle Ford and Paris Basin businesses have strategic partnerships with subsidiaries of Hess Corporation. Based on the closing share price of Toreador on Tuesday, August 9, 2011, the implied market capitalization for the combined company is approximately $294 million

In the Eagle Ford core, ZaZa holds 123,000 gross acres; the joint venture work program forecasts over 280 wells drilled by the end of 2013. In the Eaglebine, leasing is underway to expand the existing 70,000 gross acres to over 100,000 gross acres within the next 12 months. ZaZa has been in discussions with potential joint venture partners for the Eaglebine acreage and plans to spud a first well by the first quarter of 2012