Norton Rose Fulbright advises Prairie Operating Co. in US$600 million acquisition of DJ Basin assets

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright advised independent oil and gas company Prairie Operating Co. (Prairie) in its US$602.75 million acquisition of certain Denver-Julesburg Basin (DJ Basin) oil and gas assets from Bayswater Exploration and Production and its affiliates (Bayswater). The transaction closed on March 26, 2025.

Norton Rose Fulbright concurrently advised Prairie on the issuance of US$148 million of Series F convertible preferred stock to a single institutional investor and a US$41 million common stock public offering, both of which funded a portion of the cash purchase price for the Bayswater acquisition.

The remainder of the cash purchase price was funded through a draw on Prairie’s newly expanded US$1 billion credit facility, on which the Norton Rose Fulbright team also advised Prairie, and a direct issuance of common stock to Bayswater.

Prairie is focused on the acquisition and development of crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. As a leading operator in the DJ Basin, the acquisition will expand Prairie’s footprint in the region to approximately 55,000 acres, which includes nearly 600 highly economic drilling locations and around 10 years of drilling inventory.

Norton Rose Fulbright’s securities team was co-led by Bryn Sappington and Paul Conneely and included Evan Hardee, Sarabeth Shaunessy, Samantha Fawcett, Steven Constantin (Dallas), Amelia Zhang (Houston) and Siyi Zhu (New York). The corporate finance team was led by Dan Tristan and included Ryan Graham and Nicholas Roberts (Houston).

The firm’s oil and gas M&A team was led by Craig Vogelsang and Lindsey Swiger and included Matthew Melbourn (Houston).