Independent oil and natural gas company Concho Resources Inc. (CXO) said Sunday that it has agreed to buy all the oil and natural gas assets of privately-held Three Rivers Operating Co. LLC for $1 billion in cash. The acquisition is expected to close in July 2012, subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions.
Three Rivers is a privately-held exploration and production company with about 200,000 net acres in the Permian Basin. This includes large positions in the company's core northern Delaware Basin play, the Midland Basin Wolfberry play, and the emerging southern Midland Basin horizontal Wolfcamp and Cline shale plays.
As of April 1, 2012, the acquired assets have estimated proved reserves of about 58 million barrels of oil equivalent and estimated current net production of 7,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Midland, Texas-based Concho noted that the assets represent a 42 percent increase to net acreage in the Midland Basin and a 23 percent increase to net acreage in the northern Delaware Basin.
Timothy Leach, Chairman, CEO and President of Concho said, "Combined with our existing portfolio, these assets give the Company nearly 750,000 net acres across the Permian Basin, with exposure to some of the most exciting oil plays in the U.S."
Leach added, "This acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings, discretionary cash flow, production and reserves on a per share basis and provides an additional platform to significantly grow our production in the Permian Basin."
Concho plans to finance the acquisition with borrowings under its $2 billion credit facility, which had about $1.8 billion available to be borrowed as at the end of March. The company also plans to divest $200 million to $400 million of certain non-core assets from the acquisition and its existing assets over the next nine months.
In connection with the acquisition, Concho has entered into crude oil swaps on 2.4 million barrels of oil at a weighted average price of $92.90 per barrel for the remainder of 2012 through 2017.
The primary investor of Three Rivers Operating Co. is New York-based private equity fund Riverstone Holdings LLC. Riverstone Holdings has about $17 billion under management across six investment funds, including the world's largest renewable energy fund.
CXO closed Friday's trading at $89.17, down $2.15 or 2.35 percent on a volume of 1.06 million shares.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Business News
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.