Mach Resources LLC, formed last year by Oklahoma City energy guru Tom L. Ward, is partnering with Houston-based Bayou City Energy Management LLC as an equity partner to get more skin in the game for oil and natural gas development in the Midcontinent.

The partnership, BCE-Mach LLC, initially would work Oklahoma and Kansas acreage, while looking for “acquisition opportunities” with strong cash flow generation and drilling inventories. No financial details were provided.

“In our search for an equity partner, we were impressed with Bayou City’s investment approach and management team,” Ward said. “Their previous track record in Oklahoma and outlook on future opportunities aligns well with our strategy at Mach.”

Ward co-founded Chesapeake Energy Corp. and then went on to found SandRidge Energy Inc.in 2006 before he was forced out in 2013. Following his ouster, Ward in late 2013 founded Tapstone Energy LLC. He left to form Mach in early 2017, which like his other exploration endeavors, also is based in Oklahoma City.

BCE, led by Will McMullen and Mark Stoner, is a private equity firm founded in 2015 that directs its focus on the upstream. It has a “strategic relationship” with Argus Energy Managers.”

“The Midcontinent region supports excellent risk-adjusted upstream investment returns, and we’re confident the extensive network and leading insights brought by the Mach team combined with BCE’s experience operating in Oklahoma will result in a productive and profitable partnership,” said McMullen. “It is our intent for this platform to be aggressive in consolidating and redeveloping select undercapitalized regions of the upstream sector and we look forward to executing this strategy with the Mach team.”

Bayou City Energy already has drilling partnerships with Houston-based Alta Mesa Resources and Oklahoma City’s Chaparral Energy Inc., each of which work in Oklahoma’s stacked reservoirs.

Ward created SandRidge in 2006 by acquiring a controlling interest in Riata Energy for $500 million and moving it to Oklahoma City.

Before that, he served as Chesapeake Energy’s president and chief operating officer after co-founding that company with Aubrey McClendon in 1989.