© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
(March 22) – Houston-based EP Energy Corp. said Monday it has agreed to sell all of its assets in the Haynesville and Bossier shale plays in East Texas and North Louisiana to the privately-held exploration & production company, Covey Park Energy, for $420 million.
The transaction, announced by a filing to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, follows a Feb. 22 annual report to the SEC in which EP Energy disclosed a $3.8 billion net loss in 2015 – a year that was turbulent on energy companies due to low energy prices.
EP Energy General Counsel Marguerite Woung-Chapman turned to a Houston-based team from Akin Gump led by oil and gas partner Steven Otillar to handle the deal. Otillar received assistance from corporate associate Eduardo Canales and counsel Rebecca Tyler and Rahul Vashi, as well as tax partner Alison Chen.
Akin Gump has represented EP Energy on more than $2 billion in purchases and sales in the past several years. In 2014, Otillar led a $153 million purchase of assets in the Southern Midland Basin and a $150 million divestiture of non-core assets located in the Arklatex Cotton Valley and South Louisiana Wilcox areas. In 2013, Otillar led a divestiture of natural gas assets that it sold to Atlas Energy for $800 million.
Ashley Bruman, the deputy general counsel of Dallas-based Covey Park, turned to Houston partners Robin Fredrickson and Tim Fenn of Latham & Watkins to lead its end of the deal. They received assistance from associates Chad Smith and Jim Cole, who are also based in Latham’s Houston office.
The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016.
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