Devon Energy Executive Q&A: The Promise of the Permian … and Beyond

[Editor's note: A version of this story appears in the December 2021 issue of Oil and Gas Investor magazine.]

It’s been roughly a year since Devon Energy announced the $5.75 billion all-stock combination with WPX Energy. Clay Gaspar, the company’s executive vice president and COO, who made the move from Tulsa to Oklahoma City due to the merger, said everything is coming along nicely but that a combination of such magnitude takes time if you want to get it right.

The merger was one of the first to be announced in late 2020, when most industry watchers were keeping an eye on the inevitable consolidation shale E&Ps following the demand distress and price perils of 2020. The combination of WPX and Devon made the new company even more of a power player in the Delaware Basin, where it now holds approximately 400,000 net acres.

Following his keynote address at the Executive Oil Conference in Midland, Texas, in November, Gaspar gave Oil and Gas Investor a one-on-one extended interview to explore the merger, Devon’s future direction, its cash flow priority, the energy transition and carbon capture possibilities.