Global Energy Ventures (ASX:GEV) is raising $4 million to buy marine natural gas transporter Sea NG.

The oil and gas producer is paying $US585,000 ($730,000) cash plus 11.4 million ordinary shares and 56.4 million performance shares.

The company did not say at what value the shares would be issued.

GEV shares were up almost 3 per cent on the news to 18.5c, trading at the top end of their 52-week range.

GEV wants to become a vertically-integrated gas company that is able to produce and deliver its own gas.

It sees Calgary-based Sea NG’s technology as a way to do this, and fast-track some of its own projects.

“SeaNG’s proprietary CNG [compressed natural gas] marine transport solution is a low capital cost means of delivering bulk volumes of natural gas to markets, that are otherwise uneconomic for traditional pipelines or liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects,” GEV said.

Part of the deal also gives GEV the Canadian company’s next generation CNG transport ship design.

It’s “a game changer in the volume of gas that can be stored on a ship, drastically reducing comparative shipping costs”.