NEW YORK - Privately owned U.S. oil and gas producer Chaparral Energy Inc and United Refining Energy Corp, a special-purpose acquisition company, will merge and transfer its listing to the New York Stock Exchange.

The combined company will be named Chaparral Energy Inc and continue to trade on NYSE Amex until it receives approval for the listing transfer.

Chaparral, an independent oil and gas producer with assets in the U.S. mid-continent and Permian Basin in west Texas, as well as Ark-La-Tex, north Texas and Rocky Mountains, had output of 21,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day if the first half of 2009.

The company reported proved reserves of 146 million barrels of oil equivalent as of June 30.

Chaparral shareholders will exchange their entire equity stake in Chaparral for 58 million shares in the combined company, the companies said, and own 59 percent of the combined company.

Shareholders in URX, which had $452 million in trust at the end of September, will hold 35 percent of the company and the URX sponsor 6 percent, they said.

The companies said if 24 percent of URX public shareholders elected to redeem their shares for cash, and 50 percent of URX warrants were redeemed for cash at 50 cents per warrant, Chaparral will receive about $300 million in cash at the close of the transaction.

Shares held by United Refining Energy's (URX) sponsor will be restructured into 5.6 million shares in the combined company, they said. (Reporting by Matt Daily in New York and Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Valerie Lee and Maureen Bavdek)

Energy