Oklahoma City-based Western Natural Resources, LLC has formed a new partnership with global investment firm KKR to acquire producing and undeveloped oil and gas assets in the Williston Basin of North and South Dakota and Montana.
Heath Mireles, CEO of Western added, “We are excited to partner with KKR and bring what we feel is a differentiated view and business model to the basin to build a premier asset base focused on delivering strong risk-adjusted returns.”
Details of the financial investment were not disclosed but KKR has invested nearly $4 billion in capital across a dozen transactions since 2015.
The company said the Williston Basin offers “meaningful existing production and high quality, well-defined remaining drilling inventory well suited to KKR’s Energy Real Assets strategy.”
KKR said it created the partnership with Western because of the team’s operating experience “having drilled, completed and operated thousands of wells over the Williston Basin’s long history.”
Ben Conner, Director on KKR’s Energy Real Assets team, said, “The Williston continues to be a core area of focus for us as we see a significant opportunity to acquire high quality producing assets with attractive long-term value creation opportunities to be delivered through superior technical and operational execution. We have known Heath and members of his team for years and believe our partnership is well positioned to acquire and manage assets in the Williston for the long run.”