EPIC Midstream Holdings LP on April 28 appointed Marcia E. Backus, a member of the executive team at Occidental Petroleum Corp., to EPIC’s board of directors as an independent director.

Occidental Petroleum Marcia Backus headshot
Marcia Backus

“I am delighted to welcome Marcia to our board,” Brian Freed, CEO of EPIC, commented in a release from the Houston-based midstream infrastructure company.

“She brings a high level of oil and gas experience and legal expertise to our organization,” he continued. “We also look forward to adding another great strategic perspective to our board.”

Backus currently serves as senior vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer of Occidental Petroleum, where she oversees more than 60 lawyers in the U.S. and at Oxy's assets around the world.

According to the EPIC company release, Backus is ranked among the leading business lawyers in oil and gas and energy by both Chambers USA and Chambers Global. She was named 2012 “Lawyer of the Year” in M&A by The Best Lawyers in America and, in 2016, was named one of the “Top Women in Energy” by Texas Lawyer magazine. She was also named one of Hart Energy’s Oil and Gas Investor Influential Women in Energy in 2021.

Backus joins the three other independent members of the EPIC Board:

  • Karl Kurz (former COO of Anadarko Petroleum);
  • Thomas Mitchell (former CFO of Midstates Petroleum, Noble Corp. and Devon Energy); and
  • Todd Stevens (President and CEO of Black Knight Energy LLC and former CEO of California Resources Corp.).

Other members of the EPIC board include Nate Walton of Ares Management Corp. and Brian Freed and Harry Beaudry from EPIC.

Before joining Occidental in 2013, Backus was a partner at Vinson & Elkins in Houston, with responsibility for the firm’s energy transactions/projects practice group. 

At Vinson & Elkins, she represented industry and private equity companies in domestic and international corporate matters, M&A, joint ventures, private equity investments, project development and other energy transactions.

Backus served in numerous leadership positions with Vinson & Elkins, including on the firm-wide management committee and as co-chair of the corporate department and chair of the partnership admissions committee. She has worked on transactions in more than 20 countries.

EPIC was formed in 2017 to build, own and operate midstream infrastructure in the Delaware, Midland and Eagle Ford basins. The company’s crude oil pipeline and NGL pipeline each span approximately 700 miles and transport crude oil and NGL for delivery from the Permian and Eagle Ford basins into the Corpus Christi market.

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