A partnership led by industry veteran Tom Ward recently closed a heavily gas-weighted, bolt-on acquisition in the Anadarko Basin, according to a company release on Sept. 7.

“We remain active and successful in closing acquisitions that fit our profile,” Ward commented in the release.

BCE-Mach III LLC, a joint venture between Ward’s Mach Resources LLC and Houston-based private equity firm Bayou City Energy Management LLC (BCE), recently closed the acquisition of approximately 18,200 net acres (98% HBP) of producing properties primarily across Blaine, Custer and Dewey counties, Oklahoma.

Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed. However, the company noted that the bolt-on acquisition includes approximately 4,400 net royalty acres and 17 MMcfe/d of production.

“In early 2021, BCE-Mach made a concerted effort to add natural gas reserves to our portfolio,” Ward continued. “Our last two acquisitions were over 70% weighted toward natural gas while prices have increased more than 80% this year.”

The third portfolio company of the BCE and Mach Resources partnership, BCE-Mach III was formed in early 2020 and has now closed on four separate acquisitions across the Anadarko Basin. In total, BCE and Mach Resources have made nine separate acquisitions since 2018 across the three BCE-Mach portfolio companies.

“Our low-leverage profile allows the BCE-Mach enterprise to remain flexible with respect to hedging and shareholder distributions and opportunistic with respect to developmental operations and acquisitions,” said Will McMullen, founder and managing partner at BCE, in the company release.

BCE-Mach anticipates generating more than $300 million of operating cash flow in 2021 with a net debt to EBITDA multiple of less than 0.2x, according to the release.

“The disciplined approach we’ve employed on all of the above will continue to allow us to efficiently grow our already vast position in the Midcontinent,” McMullen added.

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