DENVER—Private E&P Avant Natural Resources is growing its operated footprint and production in the northern Delaware Basin.

Denver-based Avant Natural Resources has historically been louder in the minerals and royalties space, selling a Midland Basin royalty package to Brigham Minerals for $132.5 million in mid-2022.

More quietly, the company has been growing an operated position in northern Lea and Eddy counties, New Mexico, near the core of the Delaware’s oil play.

It’s a part of the Permian Basin that’s attracting billions of dollars of upstream investment and M&A activity as producers search for future drilling locations.

Avant’s neighbors include Permian Resources, Matador Resources, Mewbourne Oil, Exxon Mobil, Devon Energy and Franklin Mountain Energy.

Avant’s footprint in the northern Delaware sits at approximately 17,000 net acres today, Founder and co-CEO Jacob Nagy said Aug. 19 during the 2024 EnerCom Denver conference.

PHOTO: Avant Acreage Map.jpg
Avant Operating has aggregated around 17,000 net acres in northern Lea and Eddy counties, New Mexico. It’s one of a handful of private equity-backed E&Ps remaining in the Delaware Basin. (Source: Avant Natural Resources presentation)

The company’s Delaware assets brought along a lot of legacy production, but starting this summer, Avant really started ramping up its drilling program and output, Nagy said.

Daily oil production for Avant Operating LLC reached more than 12,100 bbl/d in June—up from an average 2,700 bbl/d during the same month a year prior, according to New Mexico regulatory data. Gas volumes averaged 31,000 cf/d.

In May, Avant’s oil and gas output peaked at more than 13,600 bbl/d and 32,000 cf/d.

“We expect to exit this year [with] 20,000 [boe/d],” Nagy said.

Avant is currently operating two rigs on its Delaware asset, where the company has identified around 300 net operated locations for future drilling.

The company is planning to add one to two more rigs in the Delaware Basin next year, Nagy said.

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Pushing north

Avant’s Delaware acreage came with a healthy amount of existing production—but output started rising again this summer as Avant started bringing its new wells online.

Between June and September, Avant plans to turn 10 gross (6.6 net) wells to sales.

The company expects production to catapult further by bringing online a 16 gross-well (13.1 net-well) pad in the Sandra Jean development area in October.

Avant, like other major Delaware operators, has focused on some of the basin’s top drilling targets: the First, Second and Third Bone Spring intervals.

The company has also brought online production from some Wolfcamp and Harkey targets.

Nagy said Avant is excited about other intervals with upside, like the Avalon interval and deeper Wolfcamp targets. 

Delaware Strat Column
The Delaware Basin’s major target intervals. (Source: Hart Energy, EIA)

“Lately we’ve been trying to extend some of the other more upside benches into this area of Lea County,” he said.

Unlike the manufacturing fervor taking place in more established parts of the Delaware Basin—like along the Texas-New Mexico state line—the northern reaches of the New Mexico Delaware have just started to enter full development, Nagy said.

Avant’s 16-well Sandra Jean pad, a full cube development project targeting eight different intervals in north-central Lea County, is a good example of the northern Delaware’s ante being upped, he said.

“We’re really testing the Avalon, First Bone, Second Bone, Harkey, Third Bone, different benches of the Wolfcamp,” Nagy said. “Kind of the full spectrum.”

The Sandra Jean pad is currently being drilled and completed, with production expected to come online by October or November.

“This will be a game-changer for this part of the basin,” Nagy said. “No one has really tested this full cube quite yet. They’ve tested different pieces of it and different spacing.”

Avant sees a lot of future upside from delineating shallower Avalon, deeper Wolfcamp and deep Pennsylvanian drilling locations in the northern New Mexico Delaware. Targeting those benches has largely happened south of Avant’s acreage.

Avalon Targets.jpg
Avant Natural Resources is working to delineate Avalon drilling locations in the northern part of the Delaware Basin. Most of the Avalon drilling has happened south of Avant’s acreage. (Source: Avant Natural Resources presentation)

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Delaware dealmaking

After a whirlwind of upstream consolidation, Avant is one of the largest privately held producers still remaining in the Delaware Basin.

The entire Permian is awash in M&A activity. But most of the deals have focused on the Midland Basin, where operators including Pioneer Natural Resources, Endeavor Energy Resources and CrownRock LP were major targets.

Delaware dealmaking has progressed more slowly. But experts anticipate further consolidation in the basin as the need for high-quality drilling locations grows.

“Never in a hundred years did [co-CEO Skyler Gary] and I think we would be the last guys standing out here, or among the last guys standing,” Nagy said.

A laundry list of private and public Delaware E&Ps have been plucked off the drawing board over the past year and change: Ameredev II, Advance Energy Partners, Earthstone Energy, Forge Energy, Maple Energy Holdings, Novo Oil & Gas, Percussion Petroleum, Point Energy Partners, Tall City Exploration and Tap Rock Resources, among others.

Avant M&A Landscape.jpg
The core of the Delaware Basin near Avant’s acreage has been red-hot with M&A activity over the past year. (Source: Avant Natural Resources presentation)

“It’s been a fun playground to be in and we look forward to being in this area for years to come,” Nagy said.

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