William C. Eiland II
Overview
William Eiland is a corporate partner in the Dallas office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. William’s practice focuses on private equity and energy transactions, with a particular emphasis on acquisitions and divestures in the upstream sector. His transactional experience also includes advising clients in connection with the formation of joint ventures, farmout and participation agreements to develop oil and gas properties, and other transactions concerning the acquisition, exploration and development of oil and gas properties. William began his career in the oil and gas industry working with private investors to acquire mineral interests located in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana and Alabama.
Experience
Representative Matters
Since joining Kirkland, William’s representative transactions have included:
- Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NYSE: NOG) in the formation of a $160 million drilling partnership with an undisclosed Appalachia operator.
- Permian Resources Corporation (NYSE: PR) in its $180 million sale of natural gas and oil gathering systems located in Reeves County, Texas to Kinetik Holdings Inc. (NYSE: KNTK).
- Franklin Mountain Energy and Avant Natural Resources in the sale of certain assets in the Permian Basin to Coterra Energy (NYSE: CTRA) for a combined $3.95 billion.
- Permian Resources Corporation (NYSE: PR) in its $817.5 million acquisition of ~29,500 net acres located in Reeves County, Texas and Eddy County, New Mexico in the Delaware Basin, from Occidental (NYSE: OXY).
- Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NYSE: NOG) in its $220 million acquisition of an undivided stake in certain Delaware Basin oil and gas assets of Point Energy Partners, LLC, in partnership with Vital Energy, Inc.
- SM Energy Company (NYSE: SM) in its $2.55 billion acquisition of Uinta Basin assets from XCL Resources, LLC, and Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NYSE: NOG) in its concurrent $510 million acquisition of an undivided 20% stake of the oil and gas assets of XCL Resources, LLC.
- Savage in its acquisition of Texon, a midstream service provider of butane blending and energy marketing services.
- TG Natural Resources LLC in its $2.7 billion acquisition of Rockcliff Energy II LLC, an upstream natural gas company focused on the East Texas Haynesville shale.
- Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NYSE: NOG) in its acquisition of certain non-operated interests across ~3,000 net acres located primarily in Lea and Eddy Counties, New Mexico in the Northern Delaware Basin, from a private seller.
- Cureton Front Range LLC in its sale to Williams Field Services Group, LLC, a subsidiary of The Williams Companies, Inc.
- Warwick Capital Partners and GRP Energy Capital in its purchase and sale agreement to sell certain mineral and royalty interests to Viper Energy Partners LP, a subsidiary of Diamondback Energy, Inc., for aggregate consideration of approximately $1 billion, consisting of 9.02 million Viper common units and $750 million in cash.
- Earthstone Energy, Inc. (NYSE: ESTE) and Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NYSE: NOG) in their $1.5 billion Delaware Basin acquisition of oil and gas assets from Novo Oil & Gas Holdings, LLC.
- Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NYSE: NOG) in its $162 million acquisition of an undivided stake in certain Delaware Basin oil and gas assets of Forge Energy II Delaware, LLC, in partnership with Vital Energy, Inc.
- Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) in its partnership with IKAV to acquire Aera Energy, California’s second largest oil and gas producer.
- Harvest Midstream Company in its acquisition of the Belle Chasse Terminal Facility from Phillips 66.
- Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE: DVN) in its $1.8 billion acquisition of Validus Energy, an operator of Eagle Ford Shale assets.
- RedStorm Energy Partners, an affiliate of Redbird Capital Partners, in its initial equity financing of RedElephant Resources, an upstream oil and gas exploration and production company, and simultaneous acquisition of Elephant Resources.
- Colgate Energy Partners III LLC in its $3.9 billion merger of equals with Centennial Resource Development Inc. (NASDAQ: CDEV) to create the largest pure-play E&P in the Delaware Basin.
- National Fuel Gas Co. (NYSE:NFG) in the sale of Seneca’s California oil and gas assets to Sentinel Peak Resources California LLC for total consideration between $280 million and $310 million, depending on oil prices, and subject to customary closing adjustments.
- Sundance Energy, Inc. in its sale of substantially all the assets of Sundance Energy and certain affiliated entities to SilverBow Resources, Inc. (NYSE: SBOW).
- Cureton Front Range, a midstream oil and gas company, in its acquisition of a portfolio of midstream assets from Aka Energy Group.
- Tailwater Capital, together with its portfolio company, Producers Midstream II, in its acquisition of Midcoast Energy’s Anadarko gathering and processing (G&P) system and a 35% interest in the Texas Express Gathering (TEG) system.
- Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NYSE American: NOG) in its acquisition of non-operated Permian Basin assets owned by affiliates of Veritas Energy, LLC for $406.5 million, plus ~ 1.9 million common equity warrants with an exercise price of $28.30 per share.
- Northern Oil and Gas Inc. in its $154 million acquisition of non-operated interests across over 400 producing wellbores primarily in Williams, McKenzie, Mountrail and Dunn counties in North Dakota.
- Diversified Energy Company PLC (LSE: DEC) in its acquisition of certain upstream assets, field infrastructure, equipment and facilities within the company's Central Region from Tapstone Energy Holdings, LLC and its related party KL CHK SPV, LLC.
- Vine Energy Inc. (NYSE: VEI) in its $2.2 billion acquisition by Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NASDAQ: CHK).
- Colgate Energy in its $508 million definitive agreement to acquire certain upstream oil and gas assets from subsidiaries of Occidental.
- Waterfield Midstream LLC, a provider of water midstream infrastructure solutions in the Permian Basin, in its sale of all of its assets to Stonehill Environmental Partners.
- Mesa Minerals Partners, LLC in its sale of oil and gas mineral interests in the Haynesville natural gas play to a subsidiary of Franco-Nevada Corporation.
- Tailwater Capital in its acquisition of NorTex Midstream, a leading natural gas storage and transmission company serving North Texas.
- Northern Oil and Gas Inc. in its acquisition of certain non-operated natural gas assets in the Appalachian Basin from a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd.
- Pinnacle Midstream II, a portfolio company of Energy Spectrum, in its new build Dos Picos Gas Gathering and Compression System in the Midland Basin, anchored by a long-term acreage dedication and gas services agreement with DoublePoint Energy.
- Penn Virginia Corporation (NASDAQ:PVAC) in Juniper Capital Advisors, L.P.’s $188 million strategic investment in the company, including $150 million of cash and certain oil and gas assets, in exchange for 59 percent of Penn Virginia’s equity.
- Arena Energy, L.P., which filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 case in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas to pursue a sale of its assets as a going-concern. The sale — which is supported by Arena’s first-lien revolving lenders and second-lien term lenders — will restructure more than $1 billion in funded indebtedness and address over $500 million of plugging and abandonment liabilities.
- LyondellBasell on definitive agreements with Sasol to form a 50/50 polyethylene joint venture through which LyondellBasell acquired 50 percent of select assets in Louisiana for a total consideration of $2 billion.
- Castleton Resources LLC in its acquisition of Terryville upstream assets in Northern Louisiana from subsidiaries of Range Resources Corporation for $245 million plus contingent payments tied to future commodity prices.
- Primexx Energy Partners in its sale of their produced water gathering and disposal infrastructure system in the Delaware Basin to WaterBridge Midstream and execution of a long-term produced water management agreement with WaterBridge.
- Bison in its acquisition of Gulfport Energy Corporation's water infrastructure in Oklahoma’s SCOOP play and its 15-year agreement to manage Gulfport's water gathering and recycling in Grady, Garvin and Stephens counties.
- Golden Gate Capital and Hillstone Environmental Partners, LLC in its $600 million sale of Hillstone to NGL Energy Partners LP.
- Santa Elena Minerals, LP in its $150 million sale of certain mineral and royalty interests to Viper Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ:VNOM) in an all-equity transaction.
- KKR in connection with Spur Energy Partners LLC’s $925 million acquisition of assets in the New Mexico Shelf from Concho Resources Inc.
- Elite Compression Services and its sponsor JDH Capital in its $410 million sale of approximately 430,000 of predominately large-horsepower compression assets to Archrock, Inc., and the $30 million purchase by Harvest Midstream Company of 80,000 active and idle compression horsepower from Archrock, Inc.
- Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. in its acquisition of properties in the Williston Basin from VEN Bakken, LLC for $165 million in cash, a $130 million 6 percent three-year senior unsecured note and approximately 5.6 million shares of common stock.
- Red Wolf Natural Resources in its partnership with Pearl Energy Investments to pursue upstream development and acquisition opportunities focused in the Mid-Continent region and select Rockies basins.
Prior to joining Kirkland, William’s representative transactions included:
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Representation of the management teams of multiple companies in their initial capitalization efforts with their equity sponsors to form upstream and midstream focused companies.
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Representation of multiple private equity sponsored companies in acquisitions, divestitures, farmouts and exchanges of producing and non-producing oil and gas assets throughout the United States.
Prior Experience
Winstead PC
More
Thought Leadership
Seminars
Moderator, "NonOp & Minerals Publics Panel," Minerals & Royalties Assembly, October 2023
Moderator, “Buyers Spotlight,” A&D Strategies & Opportunities Conference, October 2022
Presenter, “ORRIs, VPPs and other Structured Alternatives to Traditional Financing,” Annual Energy Law Conference, Institute for Energy Law, February 2022
Recognition
Credentials
Admissions & Qualifications
- 2016Texas
Education
- Southern Methodist University Dedman School of LawJ.D.cum laude2016
Articles Editor, SMU International Law Review Association
Dean's List
- Southern Methodist UniversityB.S., Economics with Financial Applications; B.A., Political Science2012