Devon Energy is selling its Eagle Ford assets to Crescent Energy for $4.22 billion in cash in a deal expected to close around year-end 2026. The deal would take Devon out of the play and strengthen Crescent’s standing among the basin’s largest producers. In today’s RBN blog, we look at why Devon is heading for the exit while Crescent is doubling down and preview our detailed analysis of the deal, available on Novi Intelligence.
Let’s start with the assets Crescent Energy is buying, which have a somewhat complicated ownership and operating history. Devon Energy entered the Eagle Ford in 2014 with its roughly $6 billion acquisition of GeoSouthern Energy’s South Texas assets, primarily in DeWitt and Lavaca counties. The deal also brought Devon into an existing 50/50 development joint venture (JV) between GeoSouthern and Petrohawk Energy in the Blackhawk field in DeWitt County. Petrohawk was acquired by BHP in 2011, and BP acquired BHP’s U.S. onshore assets in 2018, making BPX Energy Devon’s partner in the venture. Under the unusual arrangement, BHP (and later BPX) handled drilling and completions, while Devon took over operations once wells began producing.
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The Blackhawk JV continued until April 2025, when Devon and BPX went their separate ways, with each company taking operatorship and control over separate pieces of the acreage. (Devon took control of about 46,000 net acres.) Devon has made other changes to its Eagle Ford footprint over the years. It sold some non-core acreage to Penn Virginia for $198 million in 2017 but largely developed the acquired GeoSouthern acreage. It grew its Eagle Ford position again in 2022 with the $1.7 billion acquisition of Validus Energy, which expanded its presence in nearby Karnes County.
The biggest development was its multibillion-dollar merger with Coterra, which was announced in February. The deal combined complementary assets in the Permian's Delaware Basin and the Anadarko Basin, with an expected $1 billion in synergy-related savings by the end of next year. The deal, valued at about $21.4 billion, closed in May; the combined company, Devon Energy, is headquartered in Houston and is estimated to produce more than 1.6 MMboe/d in 2026. With an enterprise value of $58 billion, the company ranks fourth among U.S.-based E&Ps.
Bloomberg reported in July that Devon was considering selling its Eagle Ford and Powder River assets for more than $4 billion as it streamlined its portfolio after the merger. Devon’s sale of its Eagle Ford acreage to Crescent was part of that process.
“This sale is a direct outcome of our portfolio review, and it sharpens our focus on the highest-return, longest-duration assets,” Devon President and Chief Executive Officer Clay Gaspar said in a statement. “Selling a relatively mature asset into a strong commodity price environment improves our go-forward capital efficiency and allows us to accelerate share buybacks, strengthen our balance sheet and increase long-term value for shareholders.”
The sale of the 90,000 acres to Crescent Energy for $4.2 billion in cash marks Devon’s exit in the basin that it entered more than a decade ago through the GeoSouthern acquisition, but it also serves as a doubling down for Crescent, a seasoned player in the Eagle Ford. Since June 2023, it has announced nine Eagle Ford acquisitions totaling more than $8.5 billion, realized more than $200 million in annual synergies, and shown it can lower well costs, drill longer laterals and improve completion efficiency. The map below shows this growth, starting with Crescent's existing Eagle Ford footprint in 2022 (yellow-shaded areas in Figure 1 below).
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About the song
“Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” was written by Marc Almond and David Bell and appears as the fifth song on side two of Soft Cell’s debut studio album, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. The lyrics tell of a mismatched couple who are parting ways. Released as a single in the U.K. in January 1980, it went to #3 on the U.K. Singles chart. Personnel on the record were: Marc Almond (vocals), David Bell (electronic and acoustic instruments), Vicious Pink Phenomena (backing vocals), and David Totani (clarinet).
Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret was recorded in 1980-81 at Mediasound in New York City, and Camden Cell and Advision in London, and produced by Mike Thorne. it was recorded on a ReVox tape recorder using a Roland drum machine, Korg B-100 synth bass, and an NED Synclavier. The album was released in November 1981 and went to #22 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. Three singles were released from the LP.
Soft Cell are a British synth-pop duo formed in Leeds, England, in 1978 by vocalist Marc Almond and multi-instrumentalist David Bell. They were influenced by Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire. The duo released six studio albums, five live albums, 15 compilation albums, three EPs, and 29 singles. Their biggest hit was a cover of “Tainted Love,” a 1965 hit record for Gloria Jones, written by Los Angeles impresario Ed Cobb. David Ball died in London in October 2025. Soft Cell released their sixth studio album, Danceteria, which included David Bell, in September. Soft Cell, with Philip Larsen standing in for David Bell, completed a tour opening for Human League on a 21-date U.S. tour in July. Vocalist Marc Almond has said: “Danceteria would be the end of any new studio music from Soft Cell because recording without Dave just wouldn’t be Soft Cell.”
"About the Song" -- written by Mickey McMahan , RBN Director of Musicology
