HOUSTON, Texas – EOG Resources has announced plans to acquire Encino Acquisition Partners – among the major oil and gas producers in eastern Ohio’s Utica/Point Pleasant shale play – for $5.6 billion.
The transaction is expected to close during the second half of 2025, said Ezra Yacob, EOG’s chairman and CEO.
“This acquisition combines large, premier acreage positions in the Utica, creating a third foundational play for EOG alongside our Delaware Basin and Eagle Ford assets,” he said.
Under the deal, EOG will acquire 675,000 net acres, bringing EOG’s total position in the Utica to 1.1 million net acres, representing more than 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent of underdeveloped net resource. The acquisition would be funded through $3.5 million of debt and $2.1 billion in cash, the company said.
The deal also expands EOG’s position in the volatile oil window of the Utica/Point Pleasant by 235,000 acres, the company said.
EAP is a partnership between Houston-based Encino Energy and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The group acquired the Utica assets of Chesapeake Energy Corp. in 2018 for $2 billion.
EAP Ohio has since amassed a significant position in the Utica/Point Pleasant shale formation and is the single largest oil producer in Ohio.
During the fourth quarter of 2024, for example, EAP operated 1,068 producing wells across eastern Ohio, according to the latest data provided by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. In that period, the company’s wells yielded more than 4.7 million barrels, or nearly 47% of the oil produced in Ohio during the quarter. For all of 2024, EAP’s wells produced 16.586 million barrels of oil, or nearly 48% of the entire state’s output last year, data show.
EAP owns sizeable leaseholds in Columbiana County, and last month the company drilled its first well in Mahoning County.
“We are excited to execute on this unique opportunity that is immediately accretive to our per- share metrics and meets our strict criteria for acquisitions – high quality acreage with exploration upside, competitive with our current inventory, gained at an attractive price,” Yacob said. “This strategic move not only strengthens our presence in the Utica but demonstrates our confidence in this high-return asset to create long-term shareholder value.”
Pictured at top: An Encino Energy well in Mahoning County.