Mesa Minerals Partners II LLC has launched with new financial backer NGP, the Houston-based mineral and royalty acquisition company said in a May 26 release. 

Mesa II’s predecessor, a Quantum Energy Partners portfolio company, sold its Haynesville Shale-focused royalty portfolio for $135 million late last year to Franco-Nevada. The royalty portfolio in East Texas was assembled in partnership with upstream operator Rockcliff Energy II LLC. 

The company is led by President and CEO Darin Zanovich, a former executive of Haymaker Minerals & Royalties LLC, a Kayne Anderson and KKR-backed mineral entity which owned interests in more than 35,000 wells and over 5 million gross acres before exiting to Kimbell Royalty Partners in 2018 for $445 million.

“NGP is excited and grateful to partner with Mesa II”, NGP Partner Patrick McWilliams said in a statement. “We are thrilled to work with Darin and team as they have a demonstratable track record of creating value for stakeholders by combining basin-specific knowledge, rigorous underwriting, and active business development.”

Mesa II raised $150 million of aggregate equity commitments from NGP through NGP Natural Resources XII LP and NGP Royalty Partners LP, the company release said.

“We believe their entrepreneurial instincts and market vision position Mesa II for success,” McWilliams added.

Mesa’s primary focus is the acquisition of large, aggregated mineral and royalty portfolios generating $10 million per year or more of cash flow across all major shale basins in the U.S. Additionally, the company will continue to acquire acreage of all sizes within the core of the Haynesville Shale play in North Louisiana and East Texas, according to the company website.

Mesa II President and CEO Zanovich commented in a statement: “We are excited to partner with NGP to build a premier mineral and royalty platform focused on acquisitions of larger cash flowing royalty assets.”

Zanovich is joined by Greg Balash as COO and executive vice president. Balash co-founded and served as President of Hyridge Energy Partners with a commitment from Denham Capital to target nonoperated E&P opportunities in the Anadarko and Permian Basins. He had also served as vice president of engineering for Mesa II’s predecessor.

Rounding out the Mesa II leadership team is Executive Vice President of Finance Michelle Massaro and Executive Vice President of Land Josh Wiener.

“The Mesa II team believes our expertise and track record of acquiring large royalty packages and then complimenting the position with our strong micro transaction ground game allows us to build a portfolio of assets that deliver attractive returns to investors,” Zanovich continued.

“The partnership with NGP provides an ideal framework to invest in both mature and undeveloped assets alongside a leading private equity sponsor with extensive experience underwriting mineral investments,” he added.

Founded in 1988, NGP is a premier private equity firm with over $20 billion of cumulative equity commitments organized to make strategic investments in the energy and natural resources sectors, according to the Mesa II release.

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