Natural gas exploration & production (E&P) company Banpu Kalnin Ventures Corp. (BKV) made a splash earlier this month with an announced deal to acquire a natural gas power plant in Temple, TX, for $430 million. 

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With independent E&Ps largely focused on the upstream, value chain integration has chiefly been the territory of majors and supermajors. But BKV CEO Chris Kalnin said the power plant deal represents the start of a new era for onshore E&P companies, one that will see them wade more and more into the value chain as they search for stability amid the ups and downs of the upstream cycle.

“I think this is the tip of the spear,” Kalnin told NGI. “I think you’re going to see, over the next 10 years, E&P companies that were traditionally onshore shale independents start to...