Diversified Energy and Carlyle Sign $1.18 Billion Anadarko Deal, $210 Million Equity Buys 40 Percent of Camino Cash Flows Via ABS

Asset-Backed Structure Buys Production Without Equity Dilution

Diversified Energy Company and Carlyle's Global Credit platform have signed a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Anadarko Basin oil and natural gas properties from Camino Natural Resources for $1,175 million before adjustments, according to the joint announcement issued through GlobeNewswire on May 6. The structure routes the producing assets into a newly formed special purpose vehicle owned roughly 60 percent by Carlyle and 40 percent by Diversified, with the SPV issuing debt backed by the underlying cash flows. Diversified will fund just $210 million in net equity, drawn from its senior secured credit facility, while serving as operator. Closing is expected in the third quarter of 2026.

The deal lands the same week as the closing of the headline-grabbing Devon Energy and Coterra merger, which built a 1.6 million BOE per day Permian and Anadarko shale giant funded almost entirely by Devon's corporate equity. The contrast matters. Diversified is paying roughly $23,000 per flowing thousand BOE per day for the Camino package and footing only 18 percent of the headline price in equity, while a corporate buyer paying conventional stock or cash for the same production strip would deploy roughly five to six times that capital.

What $210 Million Actually Buys

The assets currently produce about 300 million cubic feet equivalent per day, or roughly 51,000 BOE per day. The hydrocarbon split is 55 percent natural gas, 30 percent natural gas liquids, and 15 percent oil. Diversified disclosed estimated next-twelve-months EBITDA of approximately $397 million from the package and total proved reserves of 1,478 Bcfe. At the headline $1,175 million purchase price, that implies a 3.0x NTM EBITDA multiple, well below the four-to-five-times range typical of PDP-heavy upstream packages over the past two years. Carlyle is, in effect, sourcing investment-grade-style cash flow yield while paying Diversified to operate and Camino to exit.

The leasehold totals roughly 101,000 acres across the SCOOP, STACK, and MERGE plays of central Oklahoma, contiguous with Diversified's existing footprint. The release identifies more than 100 drill-ready locations at an average 80 percent working interest, and management noted that pro forma for the deal Diversified will hold over 450 highly economic development locations across Oklahoma, equivalent to more than 30 years of inventory at a one-rig pace.

Carlyle's Asset-Backed Securitization Bet

Akhil Bansal, head of asset-backed at Carlyle, said in the joint release that the transaction demonstrates what is possible when structuring expertise and long-term capital are paired with a best-in-class operator. The choice of words is deliberate. Carlyle's Global Credit platform has spent the past three years institutionalizing oil and gas ABS as a financing class, betting that PDP cash flows from long-life conventional and unconventional wells can be packaged into bonds attractive to insurance balance sheets and yield-seeking credit investors. The structure differs from a traditional reserve-based loan in tenor, advance rate, and pricing, and unlike whole-company corporate debt it ring-fences risk to a specific asset envelope.

Diversified CEO Rusty Hutson Jr. described the partnership as innovative financing to acquire high-quality assets and grow the company's portfolio, and Diversified has used variations of the ABS approach on prior bolt-ons. The Camino transaction is among the largest single deals to date that pairs an upstream operator with a credit-platform majority equity owner, rather than treating ABS purely as debt financing layered on top of corporate equity.

Gas Price Backdrop and Strategic Fit

The Anadarko package is heavily gas weighted, and the deal is being struck against a slowly improving US gas curve. Henry Hub front-month natural gas futures traded at $2.88 per MMBtu on Monday's NYMEX session, the highest level since April 2026, according to Trading Economics quoting CME data. The EIA's weekly storage report on May 8 showed a 63 Bcf injection for the week ended May 1, below the 74 Bcf consensus and well under both the prior-year 104 Bcf and the five-year average 77 Bcf, supporting the move higher. A firmer gas curve through the second half of 2026 would compress the deal's effective payback further. On the published figures the package's reserve life sits above 26 years if production were held flat at current rates.

For ConocoPhillips and Devon Energy, both restructuring their Permian and Anadarko footprints, the Diversified and Carlyle template signals a credible exit path for non-core PDP-heavy packages without the public equity dilution that has weighed on conventional A&D processes. ConocoPhillips has been reported as marketing roughly $2 billion of Delaware Basin assets in 2026, and Permian-focused operators including Permian Resources have flagged an expected divestiture wave through the back half of the year.