Brigham Minerals Inc. has agreed to acquire a package of mineral and royalty interests in the Permian Basin from funds managed by Avant Natural Resources LLC for about $132.5 million.
The assets in West Texas span roughly 3,900 net royalty acres in the Midland sub-basin in Martin and Midland counties. The acreage is being developed by operators including Endeavor Energy Resources LP, ExxonMobil and Pioneer Natural Resources Inc.
The operators are currently running more than 40 rigs in the basin, said Brigham CEO Robert Roosa.
“I personally view this acquisition as the highest quality Midland Basin package we’ve evaluated to date given both the diversification across two of the most prolific geologic counties in the Lower 48 and the high-quality operator composition,” Roosa said. “As a result, we anticipate this acquisition will generate industry leading activity as well as strong production and cash flow growth.”
A total of 253 gross wells have been spud on the acreage over the last year, while production from the assets is expected to average 750-950 boe/d in 2023 with a 60% oil cut.
The transaction, Brigham’s largest acquisition to date, is slated to close in mid-October.
The Austin-based company’s mineral and royalty interest portfolio includes assets in the Permian’s Midland and Delaware sub-basins, along with the Anadarko Basin of Oklahoma, the Denver-Julesburg Basin in Colorado and Wyoming, and North Dakota’s Williston Basin.
This year has seen a substantial uptick in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for royalty and mineral interests.
“Since as a royalty owner you are at the mercy of your operators for organic volume growth, M&A is the lever you have control over if you want to grow cash flow and available distributions to you owners,” Enverus director Andrew Dittmar told NGI last month.
