Updated Jan. 28 to include analysis from Enverus Intelligence Research.
Diversified Energy PLC has agreed to acquire Maverick Natural Resources, a portfolio company of EIG, for total consideration of about $1.275 billion.
Maverick Natural Resources core areas are in Western Anadarko and Permian basins and Southern Arkansas, Northern Louisiana, and East Texas (Ark-La-Tex) gas plays. About 90% of the company's production originates from activity in these three areas, according to the company website.
Diversified’s core geographies are across Appalachia, the Western Anadarko, Permian basin, Barnett, and Ark-La-Tex regions.
A portion of the acquisition directly offsets Diversified's core Western Anadarko position with active development in the Cherokee Play and provides a new Permian asset base with multiple zones in Northern Delaware basin, Diversified said in a release Jan. 27.
Rusty Hutson, Jr., chief executive officer of Diversified, said the acquired producing assets "have demonstrated leading well performance and are a natural fit with our operating advantage and existing acreage. Notably, the combined footprint in Oklahoma and the Western Anadarko basin creates one of the largest in terms of production and acreage, which includes the emerging Cherokee formation."
Boost in scale
In a separate note, Andrew Dittmar, principal analyst at Enverus Intelligence Research, said the deal is a "major boost in scale for Diversified, which has emerged as one of the principal consolidators of legacy assets that can be acquired cheaply and managed for cash flow."
He said Diversified "targets buying these deals strictly for the value of existing production with no additional development planned. For owners of these types of assets like EIG with Maverick, Diversified provides an exit option for a position not likely to draw many other public company suitors."
The combined company will have an enterprise value of about $3.8 billion and operate across five distinct operating regions, with a combined production base of about 1,200 MMcfd (about 200,000 boe/d), Diversified said in its release.
Subject to customary conditions, the deal is expected to close first-half 2025.
Alex Procyk | Upstream Editor
Alex Procyk is Upstream Editor at Oil & Gas Journal. He has also served as a principal technical professional at Halliburton and as a completion engineer at ConocoPhillips. He holds a BS in chemistry (1987) from Kent State University and a PhD in chemistry (1992) from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).
