Investors Push FTC to Cut Red Tape Chains
Published Date: 3/31/2025
Notice
Summary
EnCap Investments and partners want the FTC to reopen a 2022 order and remove some rules that require their prior approval. This could change how these companies operate and speed up their business moves. The public can share their thoughts by April 30, 2025, before the FTC decides within 120 days whether to make these changes official.
Analyzed Economic Effects
4 provisions identified: 0 benefits, 4 costs, 0 mixed.
Prior-approval bars many Uinta deals
Under the 2022 FTC Order, EnCap, Verdun, and XCL cannot complete certain Uinta Basin transactions without prior Commission approval. Prior approval is required for any Relevant Area producer that averaged more than 2,000 barrels per day of waxy crude over the six months before an acquisition, or for any increase in land interests of more than 1,280 acres. The Order's prior-approval rules remain in place until September 2032 unless modified.
Prior-approval creates delay, uncertainty
The Order forces parties to file a prior-approval application, which is posted for public comment (a 30-day comment period) and allows the Commission unlimited time to decide. The petition states that the process caused parties to spend hundreds of hours and millions of dollars negotiating and that XCL lost an HSR-reportable acquisition because of the delay and uncertainty.
Order remains in force through Sept. 2032
The prior-approval provision of the 2022 Order is scheduled to remain effective until September 2032 (nearly eight more years from the petition). Respondents argue that market conditions in the Relevant Area have changed since 2022, but the restriction would continue unchanged unless the Commission reopens and modifies the Order.
Divestiture buyer also subject to approval
Section XI of the Order requires Crescent (the divestiture buyer) to obtain the Commission's prior approval before selling, licensing, or conveying the divested Uinta assets to any Relevant Area producer. The petition states this limitation reduces the likelihood that the divested assets will be maximally productive.
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