Western Midstream Partners said Wednesday that it has acquired Brazos Delaware II, a Fort Worth-based private gathering and processing platform in the Delaware Basin in West Texas, for about $1.6 billion in cash and stock. Western Midstream, which is based in The Woodlands, said it will pay about $800 million in cash and issue about $800 million in common units at the close of the deal that is expected by June 30.
Christopher B. Dial is Western Midstream’s general counsel, and Troutman Pepper Locke advised the company with a national team led by Houston Partners Jon Daly and Jennie Simmons. Vinson & Elkins served as outside legal advisor to Brazos.
Western Midstream said the acquired assets include about 900 miles of pipeline, 460 MMcf/d of natural-gas processing capacity at the Comanche complex and about 470,000 dedicated acres under long-term, fixed-fee contracts. Brazos Midstream operates in Reeves, Ward, Pecos, Winkler, Culberson, and Loving counties in West Texas.
Western Midstream President and CEO Oscar K. Brown said this transaction – coupled with the August acquisition of Aris Water Solutions – creates a network in West Texas that is “better positioned to compete for new business, provide enhanced flow assurance for our customers, and deliver incremental operational efficiencies across a broader footprint.”
“With approximately 3,500 identified drilling locations at $65 per barrel, [Western Midstream] has line of sight to decades of new throughput,” Brown said. “The addition of the Comanche processing complex also further strengthens our position as one of the largest natural-gas processors in the basin and provides meaningful capacity to support anticipated throughput growth from the Woodford and other high-return formations on the dedicated acreage.”
The Troutman Texas attorneys that advised Western Midstream include Van Jolas in Dallas and Gislar Donnenberg, Alex Dillard, Jessie Ames, Cassie Chen, Buddy Sanders, Andrew Nelson, John Nelson, Tammi Niven, Sagar Patel, Gerry Pels, Elizabeth Corey, Ed Razim, Grace Elliott and Elizabeth Casey all in Houston.
Other Troutman lawyers who provided counsel include Jacob Richards and Julian Weiss in Philadelphia, Cody Mathis in Atlanta, Emily Fahey in Richmond, Chris Barth in Chicago with Marc Machlin and Jeff Strenkowski advising from Washington, D.C.