Circle-S Energy, LLC was formed in March of 2014 to co-found and become a managing member of Headington Energy Partners, LLC (HEP). HEP was established at that same time to operate and manage the co-founders’ oil and gas assets while pursuing growth strategies through acquisitions and joint venture opportunities.
The majority of the original HEP team were long-term employees of Headington Oil Company. Beginning in 1988, Tim Headington initiated a strategy of pursuing reserve growth through acquisitions, primarily focused on divestitures from major oil companies and large independents. These efforts resulted in the accumulation of a few thousand non-operated working and royalty interests in several basins across the domestic U.S., many of which are still under management of Circle-S Energy, LLC.
Headington initiated a South Texas focus with the purchase of the Flour Bluff Field from Oryx and Exxon beginning in 1990. This led to relationships with future HEP co-founders William R. Johnston and Pat L. Smith. Subsequently, numerous additional acquisitions and joint ventures, primarily in Kenedy and Kleburg Counties, built a foundation for decades of operational success and assets that Headington Energy Partners still works to explore and develop today.
In 1997, Headington expanded its focus into the Rockies via an asset trade for Coastal’s Williston Basin properties. With this foundation, the team initiated an aggressive leasing program in the early 2000s, culminating in an acreage position of 500,000 gross and 360,000 net acres. This Williston Basin footprint spanned from Richland County, Montana through the Nesson Anticline in western North Dakota. From this base, Headington Oil Company was one of the first movers in the development of the Bakken and Three Forks trend. By 2008 Headington was operating a continuous five-rig drilling program, completing 160 horizontal Bakken wells prior to divesting the asset to XTO in 2008.
Upon exiting the Williston Basin, the Headington Team continued with managing the extensive Non-Op portfolio and operating in South Texas Conventional. The creation of HEP in 2014 coincided with initiation of an effort to assemble an Unconventional operations team to develop assets held in the Delaware and Midland Basins and pursue growth opportunities in the Permian and other Unconventional Basins. The technical team responsible for these efforts, along with a top tier Accounting and Land Team, have transitioned to operating and managing these assets as Circle-S Energy effective 1/1/2023.
Today Circle-S Energy operates nearly 60 horizontal wells in Permian Basin and Webb County, TX, and we continue to manage an extensive non-operated base consisting of around 4,000 properties spread throughout the Lower 48, for an aggregate production of approximately 20,000 boepd net. We are currently pursuing opportunities for growth, both in our existing areas of operation and in new basins, with a continued goal of providing long-term value to our owners.