Bryan E. Loocke
Texas Tower
845 Texas Avenue
Suite 4700
Houston, Texas 77002
Bryan Loocke is an accomplished transactional lawyer who represents public and private clients in a variety of domestic upstream and midstream oil and gas transactions.
Bryan is highly experienced in leading complex deals that require multidisciplinary teams.
Over the course of nearly two decades he has been involved in a wide range of transactions including drilling participation agreements, farmouts, operating agreements, gathering and transportation agreements, rig agreements, production payments, preferred equity investments and traditional and mezzanine financings.
Bryan is the Managing Partner of the Houston office.
Experience Highlights
Flywheel Energy Operating, a portfolio company of funds managed by Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, in its $1.86 billion acquisition of all Fayetteville Shale and ARKOMA upstream and midstream assets of Southwestern Energy Company via the acquisition of 100% of the issued and outstanding securities in SWN Production (Arkansas), LLC and DeSoto Gathering Company, LLC
Deep Gulf Energy Companies, a deepwater oil and gas exploration and development business operating in the Gulf of Mexico and a portfolio company of First Reserve, in its $1.225 billion sale to Kosmos Energy
PennEnergy Resources, LLC in connection with its purchase of substantially all of the assets of Rex Energy Corporation for $600.5 million and negotiation of a comprehensive global settlement to the chapter 11 case
Lucid Energy Group II in the $1.6 billion sale of the company, an EnCap Flatrock Midstream portfolio company, to a joint venture controlled by investment funds affiliated with Riverstone Holdings and the Goldman Sachs Group
Brigham Resources in the $2.55 billion cash and stock sale of all of its leasehold interests and related assets to Diamondback Energy
Concho Resources in its $1.625 billion acquisition of oil and gas assets from Reliance Energy
Black Mountain Oil & Gas LLC in the $700 million sale of certain assets in the Permian’s Northern Delaware basin of New Mexico to Marathon Oil Corporation
Sentinel Peak Resources California, LLC, a portfolio company of Quantum Energy Partners, in the $592 million acquisition (with potential additional consideration of $150 million) of certain oil and gas leases, wells and related assets in California from Freeport-McMoRan Oil & Gas
Crestone Peak Resources LLC in the $900 million acquisition of oil and gas assets in the DJ/Wattenberg Basin including more than 1,600 wells and 51,000 net acres from an affiliate of Encana Corporation
Paloma Partners IV, a privately-held Delaware limited liability company backed by EnCap Investments, in the $815 million sale of certain interests in oil and gas properties, rights and related assets located in Oklahoma to Mach Natural Resources (In Process)
Caerus Oil and Gas, LLC in its $735 million acquisition of natural gas assets in Northwestern Colorado from Encana Corporation
Concho Resources Inc. in the $360 million (paid via a combination of cash, Concho common stock and drilling carry) acquisition of 12,000 net acres in Reeves and Ward Counties, Texas from a private seller and the separate $290 million sale of 14,000 net acres located in Loving County, Texas, to Silver Hill Energy Partners II, LLC
Big Star Oil and Gas, LLC in connection with Callon Petroleum Company’s definitive agreements with three private entities to acquire certain assets operated by Big Star for total consideration of $220 million in cash and approximately 9.3 million shares of Callon common stock
Noble Energy, Inc. in the $617 million sale of mid-continent oil and gas assets in western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle to Unit Petroleum Corporation
Enerplus Resources Fund in the $575 million sale of certain Marcellus Shale oil and gas assets
Noble Energy, Inc. in the $4 billion ($2.1 billion in stock and $1.9 billion assumption of debt) acquisition and merger of Rosetta Resources Inc., a public oil and gas company with assets in the Eagle Ford Shale and the Permian Basin
Apache Corporation in the $3.75 billion sale of all of its Gulf of Mexico Shelf oil and gas properties, including negotiation of certain offshore decommissioning security performance arrangements
A major integrated oil and gas company in its $4.75 billion purchase of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas properties
Blackstone in the $2 billion acquisition of Eagle Claw Midstream Ventures from EnCap Flatrock Midstream
Concho Resources in the formation of a Delaware Basin midstream joint venture, Alpha Crude Connector, LLC, and its subsequent sale to Plains All American Pipeline for $1.215 billion
Noble Midstream Partners in the formation of Black Diamond Gathering, LLC, a joint venture with Greenfield Midstream, LLC, to acquire Saddle Butte Rockies Midstream, LLC for $625 million
SandRidge Energy in a DrillCo joint venture with a private equity backed investor to fund up to $200 million for the development of oil and gas properties in Oklahoma
Various privately held companies in multiple DrillCo transactions with funding commitments from $60 million to $650 million from various private equity investors to fund the development of oil and gas properties located in the Permian Basin, Delaware Basin, Scoop/Stack Trends and others
Various privately held upstream companies in the creation of multiple midstream joint ventures involving the formation of partnerships and acreage dedications for the gathering, transportation and/or processing of gas, oil or natural gas liquids
Range Resources Corporation in its $300 million sale of a proportionately reduced 1% overriding royalty carved out of its Washington County, Pennsylvania leasehold
Credentials
- The University of Texas School of Law, J.D., 2002
- St. Edward’s University, B.A., summa cum laude, 1999
- Legal 500 U.S., Energy: Transactions: Oil & Gas, 2018–2023; “Next Generation Lawyer” in Energy: Transactions: Oil & Gas, 2019–2024
- Chambers Global, Energy: Oil & Gas (Transactional)(USA), 2022–2024
- Chambers USA, Energy: Oil & Gas (Transactional)(Nationwide), 2019–2024
- IFLR1000, 2020–2023
- The Best Lawyers in America© (BL Rankings, LLC), Energy Law (Houston), 2023
- Selected to the 500 Leading Energy Lawyers, Lawdragon, 2023 and 2024
- Texas
- Deals & CasesDecember 4, 2024
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- IFLR1000 2022 Recognizes Vinson & Elkins in 21 Practice Categories, Recommends 49 Individual LawyersRankings & AwardsAugust 25, 2022
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- Deals & CasesJune 21, 2022
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- Deals & CasesJanuary 12, 2022
- Deals & CasesJune 8, 2021
- Deals & CasesJuly 20, 2020
- “Upstream Transactional Update: DrillCos Under Review and Producer Midstream Gathering JVs,” V&E Houston Office, November 8, 2017 (speaker)
- “The Center for American and International Law’s 68th Annual Oil & Gas Law Conference,” February 16-17, 2017 (speaker)