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Oil and natural gas producer Berry Petroleum Co. will pay $620 million for east Texas assets owned by closely held O'Brien Energy Co., in the latest in a series of deals in the oil patch.

The deal, which is expected to be announced Tuesday evening, will add 32 million cubic feet per day to Berry's natural gas production and 370 billion cubic feet of gas to its reserves. The company plans to invest $425 million over the next four to five years to double that production. The deal is expected to close in mid-July.

Originally primarily an oil company, Berry has been expanding its natural gas production in recent years. With this deal, the company expects to split its production roughly evenly between oil and natural gas. Berry Chief Executive Robert Heinemann said the company is maintaining a consistent strategy, focusing on relatively safe fields.

"Berry's not changing our stripes here," Mr. Heinemann said.

The deal is part of a surge in merger activity brought on by record energy prices. Earlier on Tuesday, XTO Energy Inc. said it would pay $4.2 billion for closely Hunt Petroleum Corp.

Experts say larger companies are locked in a land-grab, racing to snap up drilling rights in emerging oil and natural gas fields. Meanwhile, many smaller private companies are cashing in on holdings that have soared in value along with the price of oil and natural gas.

"This is a logical getting-off point," said Maynard Holt, co-president of Tudor Pickering Holt & Co., an energy-focused investment bank which advised Berry on the deal.

With the acquisition Berry will be the latest entrant into what has become one of the continent's hottest natural gas developments. The Haynesville Shale, a natural gas reserve in east Texas and northwest Louisiana, has drawn a surge in interest since it first became public earlier this year. Early players in the area include Chesapeake Energy Corp., Petrohawk Energy Corp. and Goodrich Petroleum Corp.

Other companies are rushing to join in. Last week, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. agreed to pay $603 million for an undisclosed private company with assets on the Texas side of the border. XTO's Tuesday deal also included acreage in the Haynesville region.

Berry, which until now has operated primarily in California, Utah and Colorado, reported second-quarter earnings of $43 million on revenues of $185.4 million, up from $18.9 million in earnings on $117.5 million in revenues in the same period last year.