Two private equity backed Fort Worth oil companies are merging into what will be one of the largest pure-play exploration and production companies focused on the Permian’s Midland Basin.
Double Eagle Lone Star LLC, run by Cody Campbell and John Sellers, and Veritas Energy Partners Holdings LLC, operated by Hollis Sullivan, have agreed to merge and form Double Eagle Energy Permian LLC. Each was backed by private equity money with Apollo Global Management having invested in Double Eagle and Post Oak Energy Capital, a Houston-based investor, the money behind Veritas.
The combined company, to be based in Fort Worth, will have more than 63,000 core Midland Basin net acres located predominantly in Midland, Martin, Howard and Glasscock counties, the companies said in a statement today. Campbell and Sellers will be co-CEOs of the new company, and Sullivan will serve as chairman.
Hollis Sullivan stated, “With the strength of the new company’s combined management team and its operated, drill-ready acreage position, Double Eagle Energy Permian is uniquely positioned for rapid growth and expansion in the region.”
Sellers and Campbell co-founded Double Eagle in April 2013 with backing from Apollo Global Management LLC. In November of 2014, they sold a package of Anadarko Basin assets for $225 million to Aubrey McClendon. Their primary focus is now on the Permian Basin.
Hollis Sullivan formed Veritas Energy, LLC in 2011 as a family business. He got his start in the oil and gas business with Cobra Oil and Gas in the late 1970s. Hollis then joined his Father’s company, S&H Oil Company, where he worked for over 11 years. In 1990, Hollis founded Hollis R. Sullivan, Inc. as a small oil and gas company based in Wichita Falls, Texas. The Company drilled over 400 wells throughout the State of Texas. In 2008, Hollis R. Sullivan, Inc. sold assets owned in the Barnett Shale to Fort Worth-based XTO Energy. After the sale, Hollis served as Chairman of Titan Operating, LLC in an advisory role from 2008 through 2012.
