© 2014 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate – (June 30) – Houston-based LINN Energy, LLC announced Monday that it has agreed to purchase $2.3 billion worth of drilling assets from Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy.
A handful of Texas lawyers from Baker Botts and Vinson & Elkins are involved in the deal.
It is the second time in the past week that the two firms have been in the same negotiation room for a high-dollar deal. Last week, V&E represented Houston-based C&J Energy Services, Inc. on its agreement to pay the Bermuda-based Nabors Industries Ltd. $2.86 billion to combine with Nabors’ completion and production businesses. Baker Botts represented Citi, which provided a $1.3 billion underwritten financing commitment to C&J for the deal.
The team from Baker Botts, which represented LINN, was led by Houston partners Kelly Rose and James Chenoweth and New York partner Martin Tolouse. Other Texas-based Baker Botts attorneys involved included Houston partner Shalla Prichard, Dallas partner Matthew Larsen and Houston associates Travis Wofford and Zachary Pullin.
Baker Botts is LINN’s primary outside counsel for transactions and has represented LINN on various asset acquisitions in the Jonah Field, Hugoton Basin and Permian Basin. The firm also represented, LinnCo, an LLC of LINN, in October 2012 for its $1.1 billion initial public offering.
In-house attorneys for LINN that were involved in the deal with Devon include general counsel Candice Wells, Richard Frazier and Benjamin Paul. Before joining LINN, Wells was senior counsel at Houston-based EOG Resources, Inc.
Houston V&E partner John B. Connally and associate Mingda Zhao led the deal for Devon. The rest of the M&A team came from Houston as well, including associates Igor Norinsky, Elizabeth Bellows, Shannyn Piper and Danny Hatch.
Other Houston-based V&E attorneys involved included environmental partner Larry Nettles, finance partner Mark Brazzil, employment partner Tom Wilson, real estate partner Scot Dixon and associates Martin Luff and Grace Ho. Dallas partner Todd Way and associate Julia Pashin handled the tax matters of the deal.
V&E is not new to handling high-dollar deals for Devon. Last October, the firm helped Devon form a new $4.8 billion pipeline joint venture with Dallas-based Crosstex Energy (now d/b/a EnLink Midstream). V&E advised Devon in another joint venture in 2012 with the Japanese company, Sumitomo, to develop oil and gas assets in the Permian Basin oil field in West Texas. That JV was valued at $1.4 billion.
The assets LINN will acquire from Devon include approximately 900,000 net acres across the Rockies, Mid-Continent, East Texas, North Lousiana and South Texas regions. The areas include about 4,500 wells. LINN has identified more than 1,000 future drilling locations and more than 600 recompletion opportunities.
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2014.
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