Summit Investments has agreed to acquire Bear Tracker Energy LLC for $513 million from affiliates of GSO Capital Partners LP and Bear Tracker Investments LLC. Midstream company Bear Tracker is focused on oil and natural gas in North Dakota and Colorado.

Privately held Bear Tracker has assets in service and under development in the Williston Basin in North Dakota, including in the Bakken Shale and Three Forks formation, and in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin in Colorado, which includes the Niobrara formation. The deal is expected to close during the first quarter.

“The Bear Tracker acquisition is transformational for Summit and significantly diversifies our business from a customer, geographic and commodity standpoint while maintaining our focus on providing fee-based midstream services under long-term contracts,” said Summit Investments CEO Steve Newby. “This acquisition provides us with a significant presence in two of the most prolific and highest-growth unconventional crude oil basins in North America and creates a platform from which to pursue the development of currently planned and future natural gas and crude oil midstream infrastructure growth projects.

Bear Tracker owns, operates and is developing various gas gathering and processing assets along with crude oil and water gathering assets to serve customers in North Dakota’s Mountrail, Burke, Williams and Divide counties, as well as Weld County, CO. The company performs midstream and marketing services under long-term, primarily fee-based agreements. “Substantially all of these agreements include long-term acreage dedications and many contain long-term minimum volume commitments. The existing Bear Tracker contracts have an average remaining life of 11.5 years.” The assets being acquired are the:

“Since closing the initial public offering of Summit Midstream Partners LP in October 2012, we have announced or completed two acquisitions totaling $720 million,” Newby said (see Shale Daily, Oct. 24, 2012). “Summit Investments now has a substantial operating and commercial platform across the Rockies providing crude oil and natural gas midstream services in the Williston, DJ, Piceance, Sand Wash and Uinta basins.” Newby said Bear Tracker and the previously acquired Red Rock Gathering Co. could be dropped down to Summit Midstream Partners.