Ring Energy to buy North Central Basin assets for $300m

US-based oil and gas firm Ring Energy has signed a definitive agreement to acquire North Central Basin Platform assets from Wishbone Energy Partners in a $300m transaction.

The assets to be acquired are located primarily in Southwest Yoakum County, Texas, and East Lea County, New Mexico. The transaction will give 49,754 gross acres of mostly contiguous leasehold near the prolific Wasson and Brahaney fields to Ring.

The total consideration includes $270m in cash and $30m worth of Ring Energy common stock.

Upon the completion of the transaction, Ring will assume operatorship of the assets with a 77% working interest and a 58% net revenue interest.

The acquisition includes 127 gross wells currently generating an average daily net production of 6,000Boe.

The transaction will also double the company’s production to pro-forma of 12,100Boe/d and double proved reserves from 36.6MMBoe to 70.9MMBoe.

Ring Energy CEO Kelly Hoffman said: “The future is very bright based on the great results from its existing wells combined with the exceptional results we are experiencing with our on-going drilling and development programme.

“This acquisition doubles our daily production, adds another 37,000 prime acres to our horizontal footprint and nearly doubles our proved reserves. We now have over 20 years of San Andres horizontal drilling inventory using a two-rig development programme.

“We believe this acquisition is a major step toward achieving our stated goals to continue to generate strong annualised production growth and to become cash flow neutral/positive by the second half of 2019.”

The closure of the deal is expected to take place in the second quarter of this year.

Ring has also secured a commitment from SunTrust Bank for an increased $1bn senior credit facility with a borrowing base of $425m.