Vitol Sells VTX Energy Partners to Verde Operating in Delaware Basin Exit Valued at $2.3 Billion

Vitol, the world's largest private energy trading company, agreed on July 24 to sell VTX Energy Partners to Verde Operating Company of Houston. The transaction marks Vitol's second exit from a US upstream producer in two years. VTX Energy produces 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from Reeves and Pecos counties, Texas, in the southern Delaware Basin. Vitol did not disclose a final deal price; pre-close reporting from World Oil on July 16 placed the transaction value at $2.3 billion.

Vitol's Pattern: Build a US Shale Company, Then Sell It

Vitol established VTX in 2022 by partnering with the former management team of ATX Energy Partners, led by CEO Gene Shepherd and Erik Hoover. ATX had been focused on southern Delaware Basin acreage before Vitol brought the team into the VTX structure. Production grew to 60,000 boe/d over four years, creating enough scale to warrant a formal market exit. The move follows Vitol's 2024 sale of Vencer Energy to Civitas Resources for $2.1 billion, which covered Midland Basin acreage in West Texas producing roughly 62,000 boe/d at the time of sale.

Ben Marshall, Vitol's head of Americas, called the team's professionalism and capital discipline "exemplary" in the official press release. Gene Shepherd noted: "I would like to thank Vitol for the opportunity of building VTX into the successful business it is today." Vitol's pattern across two transactions is now visible: it finances upstream operating teams at an early stage, allows them to build to scale, and monetizes the business rather than absorbing it into Vitol's trading portfolio permanently.

EnCap Exits One Delaware Basin Asset and Backs Another on the Same Day

Verde Operating's financing includes equity from Carnelian Energy Capital Management and EnCap Investments, along with Chief Capital, HF Capital, Formentera Partners, company management, and other co-investors. A new reserves-based credit facility will support the transaction alongside the equity commitments. On the same day Vitol announced the VTX sale, Oil Authority reported that EnCap structured a dual exit to Matador Resources from two Delaware Basin assets for $1.275 billion. That transaction covered 16,235 net acres in Eddy and Lea counties, New Mexico, producing between 10,600 and 11,600 boe/d.

EnCap thus exited two smaller, mature Delaware Basin packages to a public company on July 24 while simultaneously committing equity to a much larger private operator on the same day. Capital exiting Paloma Permian can, in principle, rotate directly into Verde's equity stack for VTX. The firm declined public comment on the concurrent transactions.

$38,000 Per Flowing Barrel Against $115,000: Why the Gap Is Wide

At a reported $2.3 billion for 60,000 boe/d, the VTX transaction implies an acquisition cost of $38,333 per flowing barrel of oil equivalent per day. By contrast, the Paloma exit priced at $1.275 billion against a production midpoint of 11,100 boe/d, implying $114,865 per flowing barrel. Paloma's valuation per flowing barrel is three times higher than VTX's.

The gap reflects different asset profiles. Paloma's production was 57% oil with 55 million barrels of proved reserves, supporting a higher per-unit price. VTX's southern Delaware Basin acreage in Reeves and Pecos counties carries a heavier weighting toward natural gas and NGLs, which price at a discount to oil-weighted Midland Basin assets. Its larger production base also dilutes the per-unit acquisition cost versus smaller, well-developed packages. Goldman Sachs and Kirkland and Ellis represented Vitol; Morgan Stanley, Gibson Dunn and Crutcher, and Tudor, Pickering, Holt and Co. advised Verde and the equity consortium.