WPX Energy to acquire RKI for $2.35bn

US based energy company WPX Energy has signed an agreement to buy RKI Exploration & Production for $2.35bn and assume about $400m debt.

The acquisition will add 92,000 acres in Permian’s Delaware Basin, more than 3,600 drilling locations and more than 375 miles of scalable gas gathering and water infrastructure.

WPX president and chief executive officer Rick Muncrief said: "This is a transformative opportunity that fits perfectly with our strategy to increase our oil production and high quality oil inventory.

"RKI’s asset scale and concentrated acreage position allows for efficient, low-cost, multi-decade development in a world-class oil play.

"For our shareholders, this further drives high-margin oil growth, accelerates our portfolio transition to more liquids, and solidifies our premier position in the western United States, which enjoys the advantages of established infrastructure and higher realised commodity prices."

Most of the RKI’s assets are located in Loving County, Texas, and Eddy County, New Mexico where the company has four rigs and following the deal WPX plans to increase the number of rigs to six.

WPX has assets in North Dakota’s Williston Basin, New Mexico’s San Juan Basin and Colorado’s Piceance Basin which produced 169.1 Mboe/d in first-quarter 2015.

The acquisition will increase WPX’s drilling inventory in oil basins to 4,600 locations.

WPX will fund the deal by selling $1.2bn in debt, $300m preferred stock 27 million shares in common stock.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval and the companies expecting to close the deal by third quarter of 2015.