Oil exploration company acquisition, layoffs take shape

FIRESTONE — Crestone Peak LLC will lay off 159 workers in several counties as part of its pending acquisition by a new oil drilling entity — which itself is also a work-in-progress.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification gives a Firestone address for Crestone’s 90 Weld County employees. The rest are in Denver, Arapahoe and Douglas counties.

Denver-based Crestone Peak is being bought by Civitas Resources Inc., a company to be formed by a merger of Bonanza Creek Energy Inc. (NYSE: BCEI) and Extraction Oil & Gas Inc. (Nasdaq: XOG), both also in Denver.

The merger involves three Crestone companies: Crestone Peak Resources…