History for Longfellow Energy, LP

The history of Longfellow Energy really begins with Riata Energy and N. Malone Mitchell 3rd. In 1985, Mr. Mitchell founded Riata Energy, an oil & gas company, with $500 in capital. Within the first five years, Riata Energy acquired 14 smaller oil producers and built up a base of production. In the early 1990’s, Riata expanded geographically through the purchase of assets in the Piceance Basin of Colorado and the Permian Basin of West Texas.

In 1991, Riata acquired a single well in the Terrell County, Texas and re-completed it in a new zone, establishing the Pakenham field. After drilling or re-entering 34 wells, Riata sold the Pakenham field to Chevron in 1994. Soon after, Riata acquired 200,000 acres of prospective acreage in the Pinon Field and Ouachita Overthrust of West Texas. Today the Mitchell family, through Longfellow Ranch Partners, owns surface and minerals under the Pinon Field.

In 1997, Riata purchased its first drilling rig (Lariat Services was the name of the service company), building on its strategy of vertical integration. Over the subsequent few years, Riata expanded its rig fleet to increase exploration and development. Additionally, Riata acquired and built-out gathering systems and treating plants. Riata even acquired tertiary recovery oilfields, which would be flooded with CO2 gathered from Riata’s treating plants.

In June 2006, Tom L. Ward, co-founder of Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) acquired a controlling stake in Riata Energy for $500 million, became the largest shareholder, and renamed the company SandRidge Energy (NYSE:SD).

In December 2006, Mr. Mitchell resigned from daily management at Riata/SandRidge to establish Longfellow Energy. Many of Mr. Mitchell’s key managers left SandRidge to re-join him at Longfellow Energy.

Beginning operations in 2007, Longfellow first successfully developed the McGee Valley Project, a tight gas reservoir in Southeast Oklahoma. Its geologic setting (the Ouachita Overthrust) is similar to the huge Pinon Field that Riata developed in the West Texas Overthrust. In 2009, Longfellow began to put together a project in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. Longfellow sold that project about a year later to focus on projects in Oklahoma and Texas, where it had greater operational control.

Beginning in early 2011, Longfellow focused on assembling and developing the Nemaha Project in the STACK Play area of Central Oklahoma. Ultimately, Longfellow controlled about 90,000 net acres in the Nemaha Project across 130 sections and drilled more than 100 horizontal wells. The Nemaha Project was sold in June 2018, realizing a significant return on investment for Longfellow.

Today, Longfellow Energy continues the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship that was born with Riata in 1985. Our focus since 2019 has been developing the Loco Hills Project in Eddy County, New Mexico for horizontal development of the Yeso formation. To date, we have drilled 11 horizontal wells in that project and our plans in 2022 are to continue drilling and completion operations with 10-15 wells planned for 2022.

On January 2022, Longfellow Energy acquired the Pinon, Thistle, Brown Bassett, and KM Field production (933 wells), from Oxy WTO (a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum). This acquisition results in the assets developed by Riata Energy from 1995-2006, and Sandridge Energy from 2007-2010, returning to control by Longfellow Energy.

We continue to evaluate and seek additional project opportunities in the Permian Basin, the Mid-continent of Oklahoma and in North and East Texas.