Luke Powers Strother
Overview
Luke Powers Strother is a corporate associate in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Luke’s practice focuses on mergers & acquisitions, private equity and domestic energy transactions, with an emphasis on the development, acquisition and divestiture of energy and infrastructure related projects and assets. His transactional experience includes advising clients in connection with the purchase and sale of a broad range of energy assets, merger agreements, joint development projects, participation agreements, carbon capture projects and other commercial transactions.
Experience
Representative Matters
Since joining Kirkland, Luke has been involved in the following matters:
- EQT Corporation (NYSE: EQT) in its $1.25 billion sale of its remaining non-operated natural gas assets in Northeast Pennsylvania to Equinor USA Onshore Properties Inc. and certain of its affiliates.
- Advised the seller of a package of natural gas properties in eastern Texas on a purchase and sale agreement with Diversified Energy Co. PLC (LSE: DEC; NYSE: DEC).
- 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).
- EQT Corporation (NYSE: EQT) in its sale and exchange with Equinor USA Onshore Properties Inc., of an undivided 40% interest in EQT’s non-operated natural gas assets in northeast Pennsylvania, in exchange for $500 million of cash and certain upstream and midstream oil and gas assets from Equinor.
Prior to joining Kirkland, Luke was involved in the following matters:
- Occidental in its divestiture of its Wyoming, Colorado and Utah Land Grant assets to Orion Mine Finance for approximately $1.33 billion. The transaction had a footprint of approximately 4.5 million mineral acres and 1 million fee surface acres.
- Chief E&D Holdings, LP and Tug Hill, Inc. in the sale of Chief E&D Holdings, LP and certain associated interests to Chesapeake Energy Corporation, valued at approximately $2.65 billion and named a Top 10 Texas M&A Deal of 2022 by The Texas Lawbook.
- Mesquite Energy, Inc. in its $600 million divestiture of Western Eagle Ford assets to Crescent Energy Company.
- Mesquite Energy, Inc. in its divestiture of its Eagle Ford Catarina Ranch assets to Black Mountain Oil and Gas.
- A family-owned upstream energy company (and an affiliate) in the sale of the entire company to a public energy company.
- Energy Transfer LP in its acquisition of Enable Midstream Partners, LP (and related reorganization) whereby Energy Transfer acquired Enable in an all-equity transaction valued at approximately $7.2 billion.
- Hess Corporation in the sale of certain acreage interests in the Bakken in North Dakota to Enerplus Corporation for a total consideration of $312 million.
- Sunrise Oil & Gas in the sale of substantially all of its oil and gas assets to affiliates of Contango Oil & Gas, a subsidiary of Crescent Energy Company.
- Diamondback Energy in its divestiture to Oasis Petroleum North America LLC of approximately 95,000 net acres in the Williston Basin for a gross purchase price of $745 million.
- Vencer Energy LLC in its acquisition of Hunt Oil Company’s Midland Basin assets for an undisclosed sum.
- TreeHouse Foods in its divestiture of significant portions of the meal preparation business of for $950 million, including a complex internal reorganization prior to consummating the transaction.
- An independently owned oilfield services company (and its affiliates) in the sale of the entire company to a private equity buyer.
- An oilfield services company in its acquisition of certain water treatment equipment (and related intellectual property) from a private equity seller.
- A strategic entity in its acquisition of certain upstream oil and gas assets located in the Barnett Shale from a private equity seller.
- Arclight Capital Partners in connection with the acquisition of a 50% interest in the King’s Quay floating production system and associated export lateral pipelines from Murphy Exploration & Production Company – USA, a subsidiary of Murphy Oil Corporation.
- Independence Resources Holdings in its sale of Independence Resources Management to Earthstone Energy, Inc., for an aggregate purchase price for the acquisition was approximately $186 million, comprised of a combination of cash and common stock in the acquirer
- Hess Corporation in the sale of its working interest in the Shenzi Field in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico to BHP Billiton for a total consideration of $505 million, subject to customary adjustments.
- Riverstone Holdings LLC in connection with its purchase of International-Matex Tank Terminals from Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation for total consideration of $2.685 billion.
- Riverstone Holdings LLC in the sale of offshore Gulf of Mexico producing assets, exploration prospects and acreage from affiliates of ILX Holdings, LLC, ILX Holdings II, LLC and ILX Holdings III, LLC and Castex Energy 2014, LLC (all of which are managed by Riverstone) to Talos Energy Inc.
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Credentials
Admissions & Qualifications
- 2019Texas
Education
- University of Texas at Austin School of LawJ.D.2019
- Texas A&M UniversityB.S., Petroleum Engineering2016
News &
Insights
Kirkland Counsels Franklin Mountain and Avant Natural Resources on Acquisitions by Coterra for a Combined $3.95 Billion