Pioneer Natural Resources, one the US’s biggest independent oil operators, is to buy rival Texan producer DoublePoint Energy in a $6.4bn cash and stock deal, as consolidation in the country’s battered shale patch rolls on. Pioneer said on Friday the acquisition would give it “unmatched” scale in Texas’s Permian Basin, the world’s most prolific oil-producing region.
Private equity-backed DoublePoint, was one of the Permian producers to increase production through last year’s price crash, which briefly left US oil prices trading below zero.
In January, Pioneer completed a deal for Parsley Energy, another large Permian producer, in a $7.6bn acquisition that led to Sheffield’s company merging with one founded by his son, Bryan Sheffield.
DoublePoint, backed by private-equity groups Quantum Energy Partners and Apollo Global Management, was among the non-listed Permian producers able to buck that trend last year and increase production.
Source: Financial Times
By Derek Brower
