Extraction Oil & Gas plans underground pipelines in region

DENVER — Extraction Oil & Gas Inc. (Nasdaq: XOG) plans to build a series of underground pipelines that will transport oil, natural gas and water from wells in Broomfield, Boulder and Weld counties to a central gathering facility that will be built in southwest Weld County.

Denver-based Extraction also will buildout pipeline systems in Elbert, Denver and Arapahoe counties that will connect to a central gathering facility that will be constructed in Arapahoe County.

The project in Boulder, Broomfield and Weld counties is called Southwest Wattenberg, and the gathering facility is called Badger. The project in Denver, Elbert and Weld counties is called Hawkeye, and the gathering plant is called Matador.

Extraction, through one of its subsidiaries, Elevation Midstream LLC, secured financing for up to $500 million from GSO Capital Partners LP for the two projects. GSO Capital Partners is the global credit-investment platform of Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc. (NYSE: BXMT).

Extraction’s chairman and chief executive, Mark Erickson, said the transaction is beneficial to Extraction shareholders because the company will “retain the full economic upside from this midstream system … and the buildout will be fully financed without any expected cash outlay from Extraction.”  Erickson said the systems will reduce lease-operating expenses and well costs.

Michael Zawadzki, senior managing director and co-head of energy at GSO, said the Hawkeye and Southwest Wattenberg midstream systems will allow Extraction and other third-party customers to unlock development opportunities in the infrastructure constrained southern D-J Basin.

Discovery DJ Services LLC, a natural-gas gathering and processing company, and Platte River Holdings LLC, a crude oil gathering and transport company, will provide the downstream support to process and transport commodities from the gathering plants to market centers.

Editor’s note: This story was updated July 12 with the correct location of one of the central gathering facilities. A map provided by Extraction Oil & Gas incorrectly showed the Badger facility was in Boulder County. It is in southwest Weld County.