Permian Basin

The Permian Basin remains red hot as SM Energy Co. on Tuesday released results of eight new Midland Basin wells in Howard County, TX, where the company will be focusing a substantial amount of its drilling effort this year.

Houston-based exploration and production company EP Energy Corp. said Thursday it has tapped private investor Wolfcamp Drillco Operating LP to form a 150-well joint venture (JV) in the Permian Basin.

Plains All American Pipeline LP (PAA) is paying $1.215 billion for a crude oil gathering system in the Permian Basin’s Northern Delaware sub-basin that serves “several producers” in the hot play.

Halcon Resources Corp. is entering the bustling Delaware Basin through a deal to acquire 20,748 net acres in Pecos and Reeves counties, TX, in the southern portion of the play, which is a sub-basin of the Permian. Simultaneously, the company is selling up in the Eagle Ford.

Targa Resources Partners LP is acquiring oil/natural gas gathering and processing assets in the Midland and Delaware sub-basins of the Permian Basin for an initial cash payment of $565 million.

EnLink Midstream, the Devon Energy Corp.-controlled natural gas gathering and transportation partnership, is forecasting a ramp-up in Midcontinent volumes in anticipation of increased producer activity in the region in 2017.

Viper Energy Partners LP continues to strike acquisition deals this year in the Permian Basin after completing 26 transactions in the second half of 2016, underlined by an “improving market,” the Diamondback Energy Inc. unit said.

Operators attempting to buy into the Permian Basin now may have to go big or go home, because most of the oil- and natural gas-rich acreage in West Texas and southern New Mexico is now within the grasp of public and privately held explorers.

ExxonMobil Corp. on Tuesday struck a deal valued at close to $6.6 billion to more than double its Permian Basin resource and add about 275,000 acres total, mostly in New Mexico, signaling that it will give no ground in the hottest play in the U.S. onshore.