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Vital Energy Raises Production Outlook and Capital Spending with Significant Permian Basin Acquisition
07/31/2023
Vital Energy’s deal adds 24,000 net acres and 100 gross drilling locations in Texas, growing its Permian Basin footprint to around 198,000 net acres.
Vital Energy is revising its projections for oil and gas production and capital spending upward following the successful acquisition of a substantial area in the Permian Basin. The company has gained around 24,000 net acres and 100 gross drilling locations in Texas. As a result of this deal, Vital Energy is now increasing its full-year production and capital spending guidance.
Vital Energy Completes $391.6M Acquisition of Forge Energy II
Tulsa-based Vital Energy finalized its acquisition of Forge Energy II Delaware LLC on June 30, as reported in a July 11 news release. The transaction involved a cash payment of $391.6 million, securing 70% ownership of Forge's assets, with adjustments made for closing price.
In a collaborative effort with Minnesota-based Northern Oil & Gas Inc., Vital Energy obtained Forge's assets through a joint deal. Vital Energy assumed operational control of the acquired assets with a 70% stake, while NOG acquired the remaining 30% for $167.9 million in cash.
This acquisition contributes approximately 24,000 net acres and an additional 100 gross drilling locations situated in Pecos, Reeves, and Ward counties, Texas. With this expansion, Vital Energy's footprint in the Permian Basin now spans around 198,000 net acres.
Oil and gas production outlook
After acquiring Forge and surpassing production projections for the first half of 2023, Vital is raising its oil and gas production outlook.
- Total production is now estimated at 82,000 boe/d to 86,000 boe/d, up from the previous 76,000 boe/d to 80,000 boe/d.
- Crude oil production is expected to rise to 40,000 bbl/d to 43,000 bbl/d from the earlier 36,300 bbl/d to 39,300 bbl/d.
Vital plans to use a single drilling rig and bring five wells online in the recently acquired Delaware Basin acreage to boost production. The company has allocated an additional $50 million in its capital spending budget for these efforts. The revised full-year capital spending forecast is now $675 million to $725 million, highlighting Vital's commitment to expanding its presence and optimizing production in the oil and gas market.
In the latter half of 2023, Vital intends to utilize a single drilling rig and activate five wells on the Delaware Basin acreage acquired from Forge. To support the development of these newly acquired assets, Vital has allocated an additional $50 million in its capital spending budget. Consequently, the company's full-year capital spending forecast has been adjusted to range between $675 million and $725 million, reflecting an increase from the original guidance of $625 million to $675 million.
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Triple Advantage Vital Energy's $1 Billion M&A Enhances Permian Portfolio, Cash Flow
Vital Energy, focused on the Permian Basin, plans quick debt reduction after securing $1.165 billion in deals, adding key Midland and Delaware basin inventory.
Chevron Announces Intent to Divest Oil and Gas Properties in New Mexico and Texas
According to Reuters, Chevron has recently made additional assets available for acquisition in both New Mexico and Texas. As part of its strategy to streamline operations following significant shale acquisitions, Chevron is reportedly offering multiple oil and gas properties for sale in New Mexico and Texas. Marketing documents reviewed by Reuters reveal the company's intention to divest these assets. Despite its prominent position as the largest publicly-traded oil and gas producer and property owner with 2.2 million acres in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, Chevron has been actively divesting properties in the region. This divestment aligns with Chevron's efforts to optimize its portfolio and focus on its core operations.
TotalEnergies kicked off 2024 with a net income of $5.7 billion in the first quarter, marking a modest 3% increase from the same period last year and a 13% rise from the previous quarter. This growth occurred despite experiencing drops in both the volume and price of gas sales over the year and the quarter. Their adjusted net earnings, which exclude one-time or unusual items, were $5.1 billion. This represents a significant 22% decline compared to last year and a slight 2% drop from the last quarter. The company's earnings before tax, depreciation, and amortization reached $11.5 billion, while their cash flow from operations significantly decreased to $2.2 billion, falling by 58% from last year and a steep 87% from the previous quarter. TotalEnergies also recorded $644 million in impairments.
New Mexico leads the Rockies region in gas production and ranks as the sixth-largest in terms of active gas wells in the U.S. Last year, the state's gas well count slightly increased by 0.2% to 30,699, with new additions in both the northwestern San Juan Basin and the southeastern Permian Basin. Meanwhile, just to the north in Colorado, gas producers grew by a modest 0.1% to 30,322, primarily due to increased drilling activity in the DJ and Piceance basins. Wyoming saw a decline in its active gas wells by 3.7%, down to 17,006, with production mainly in Sublette, Sweetwater, and Converse counties reflecting stable or slightly reduced drilling activity. Utah also experienced a slight decrease of 0.2% in its number of gas wells, totaling 6,463. In Q1 2024, oil and gas industry activity in Oklahoma, Colorado, and northern New Mexico experienced a decline. This marks the fifth consecutive quarter of contraction in drilling and business activities within these regions. According to a survey that included responses from 33 firms operating in the Rockies, this downtrend is expected to continue over the next six months.
The Williston Basin is a big area filled with layers of rock that sits next to the Rocky Mountains in western North Dakota, eastern Montana, and the southern part of Saskatchewan in Canada. This area covers roughly 110,000 square miles. Geologically, it's very similar to the Alberta Basin in Canada. People started drilling for oil in the Williston Basin back in 1936, and by 1954, most of the land where oil could likely be found was already claimed for drilling. The Bakken Formation with parts of Montana, North Dakota, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba has become one of only ten oil fields globally to yield over 1 million barrels per day (bpd) since the late 2000s. It is currently the third-largest U.S. shale oilfield, behind the Permian and Eagle Ford. The boom in the Bakken started around September 2008, coinciding with the U.S. housing market crash. The application of new technologies, such as swell packers enabling multiple-stage fracturing, significantly enhanced oil recovery, making the Bakken Formation a key player in the U.S. In 2022, the Bakken oil field saw big improvements in how much oil and gas it could produce. At the start of the year, 27 drilling rigs were working there, more than double the 11 rigs from the start of 2021. Important upgrades included making the Tioga Gas Plant able to process 150 million cubic feet more gas each day, and making the Dakota Access Pipeline bigger, increasing its oil transport capacity from 570,000 to 750,000 barrels every day.