Vanguard Natural Resources, LLC today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire natural gas, oil and natural gas liquids (“NGLs”) assets in North Louisiana and East Texas for a purchase price of $278 million from Hunt Oil Company. The properties consist of approximately 23,000 net acres that are currently producing approximately 17.5 MMcfe per day, with approximately 67% natural gas and 33% oil and NGLs. The effective date of the acquisition is June 1, 2014, and the anticipated closing of the acquisition is on or before October 1, 2014. (more…)

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Akin Gump represented Alliance Data Systems Corporation in a recently completed Rule 144A/Regulation S offering of senior notes.

The offering consisted of $600 million aggregate principal amount of 5.375 percent senior notes due 2022. The notes are general unsecured senior obligations of Alliance Data Systems, guaranteed on a senior unsecured basis by certain subsidiaries of the company and will pay interest semi-annually, commencing on February 1, 2015. Alliance Data intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to repay a portion of the outstanding indebtedness under its revolving credit facility. (more…)

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Akin Gump advised Newfield Exploration Company in a deal announced July 29, in which the company signed a $588 million purchase and sale agreement for its Granite Wash assets to Oklahoma City-based Templar Energy LLC (operating through Le Norman Operating LLC). The sale will have an effective date of July 1, 2014, and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2014. (more…)

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A Hogan Lovells cross-border, cross-practice team made up of lawyers from Denver, Houston, Washington, D.C., and Tokyo, advised JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corporation (“JX Nippon”) in its formation of a 50/50 joint venture company (“ the Company”) through its wholly owned subsidiary JX Nippon Oil Exploration (EOR) Limited1; and Petra Nova Holdings LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of NRG Energy, Inc. (“NRG”). (more…)

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Akin Gump advised Diamondback Energy on a pair of transactions announced on July 21.

In one, Diamondback priced an underwritten public offering of five million shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $87 per share. The underwriters have an option to purchase up to an additional 750,000 shares of common stock from Diamondback at the public offering price (less the underwriting discount). Net proceeds to Diamondback, after the underwriting discount and estimated offering expenses, will be approximately $421.7 million or approximately $484.9 million if the underwriters’ option is exercised in full.

In the other transaction, Diamondback announced it had entered into a definitive purchase agreement with unrelated third party sellers to acquire additional leasehold interests in the Midland Basin for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $538 million, subject to certain adjustments. Upon completion, the acquisition will provide Diamondback with primarily operated leasehold interests, the majority of which are located in Texas’ Midland and western Glasscock counties. (more…)

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Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP represented the lenders in connection with the senior debt financing for the Petra Nova Carbon Capture Project, a groundbreaking $1 billion carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project that is expected to be the world’s largest facility using captured carbon dioxide from an existing power facility to assist in extracting otherwise difficult-to-reach oil.

A Milbank team led by Tokyo-based Global Project Finance partner Alec Borisoff advised the senior lenders, including Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and Mizuho Bank, Ltd., who is backed by insurance provided by Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI). (more…)

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