CALGARY — Crescent Point Energy Corp. is on its biggest acquisition spree in recent years, one that market conditions and activity in its key resource plays support continuing, chief executive Scott Saxberg said Thursday following an announcement that the company inked a deal to take over junior Cutpick Energy Inc. for $425 million.

Crescent Point, Canada’s fifth-largest independent oil and gas producer, has been a serial acquirer since its founding acquisition in 2001 in the Provost, Alta. area where Cutpick is based. But 2011 represented a lull for the Calgary firm as it patiently awaited the right targets, Saxberg said.

The company is now finding favourably priced deals due to decade-low natural gas prices, which are forcing junior firms to sell oily assets to raise money for drilling as investors shy away from equity financing, Saxberg said. As companies in Crescent Point’s key tight oil plays in Western Canada have been eager to sell, it has been keen to buy, he said.

“We’re always looking for opportunities and there still are a few opportunities within our core areas that we’d obviously like to consolidate over the next six to 12 months,” Saxberg said in an interview.

“Then on top of that, we’re looking to expand into the U.S. and add to that portfolio,” he said, pointing to the Bakken tight oil play in North Dakota.

The all-share deal to acquire private firm Cutpick Energy by June 19, which includes $83 million in debt, comes with output of about 5,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day — about 65 per cent oil — in the Viking light oil play near Provost, Alta.

The deal brings total acquisition spending this year for Crescent Point to about $1.7 billion on four deals, which far exceeds the roughly $201 million Crescent Point paid for U.S. assets in 2011, and if the pace continues, could outdo the company’s roughly $2 billion spent on acquisitions in 2010.

The Cutpick acquisition sets Provost up as Crescent Point’s third-largest producing area, more than tripling output expected this year in the area to about 7,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day, after the Bakken and Shaunavon plays in southern Saskatchewan. Crescent Point’s average annual daily production gets bumped up by 2,000 boe/d to 88,500 boe/d and the company is poised to exit the year up four per cent at 97,500 boe/d. Capital spending also rises to $1.25 billion this year, $50 million more than previously expected, thanks to the deal.

Alta Corp. Capital Inc. research analyst Don Rawson said since Crescent Point shares trade at a premium, its valuation relative to cash flow, production and reserves, it can do “pretty much any deal” it wants.

“I wouldn’t speculate on what they would buy but they are a very active acquirer so if they announced another acquisition, I wouldn’t be surprised,” Rawson said.

Saxberg said Crescent Point, the only company to flood unconventional reservoirs with water to increase oil recovery, is looking for assets with “big oil in place” — a large potentially recoverable resource base, in other words — in large fields that are mostly untapped, where Crescent Point could maximize recovery through infill drilling and water floods.