Lime Rock Resources is starting off the year with a pair of acquisitions worth $358.5 million that Chairman and CEO Eric Mullins said signals changing market dynamics for upstream A&D.

With a sole focus on acquiring producing oil and gas properties in the U.S., Lime Rock Resources has made over 25 major acquisitions since its inception in 2005. However, until last October, the Houston-based company had been laying low since 2019, according to Mullins.

“We have been patient, acquiring only one small overriding royalty interest in the two years before this past October,” he commented in a company release on Jan. 4.

In October, Lime Rock Resources closed on the acquisition of oil and gas properties in the Permian Basin from Rosehill Resources. The acquisition, which Mullins had described in a July announcement as a “unique opportunity,” was worth $508.3 million.

In total, the Lime Rock Resources team has made over $850 million in total property acquisitions over the last four months.

“We believe that the nearly one billion dollars of acquisitions in the last several months,” Mullins said, “testifies to changing market dynamics, a robust opportunity set, and our ability to work with sellers over many months on transactions that work for all parties.”

The two acquisitions announced Jan. 4 included the acquisition of Abraxas Petroleum Corp.’s Williston Basin position in North Dakota. Abraxas had previously announced the $87.2 million transaction as part of a restructuring process that would result in it becoming a pure-play Delaware Basin company.

Abraxas Petroleum Williston Basin Position Acquired by Lime Rock Resources Rextag Data Map
Data courtesy of Rextag. For more information about Rextag and to see the data for yourself, connect with Tyler Reitmeier at treitmeier@hartenergy.com.

Separately, Lime Rock Resources said it also acquired properties from an undisclosed private seller in the Austin Chalk and Eagle Ford in Texas for $271.3 million.

“With significant on-the-ground operating capability in both Texas and North Dakota,” Charlie Adcock, vice-chairman of Lime Rock Resources, added in the Jan. 4 release, “we look forward to integrating the new assets into our existing operations and to continue to focus on margins and low-risk development opportunities.”

The Williston acquisition from Abraxas consist of approximately 3,500 acres in North Dakota’s McKenzie County. Inclusive of the new assets, Lime Rock Resources now manages approximately 19,400 boe/d of net production in North Dakota within the Williston Basin, where it said it has been an active operator since 2014.

The private acquisition in the Austin Chalk and Eagle Ford is of producing properties on approximately 46,000 highly contiguous net acres located in Burleson, Milam and Robertson counties, Texas. The properties produced approximately 7,700 boe/d as of the closing of the acquisition, the Lime Rock release said.

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