Blackstone to Invest $1.5B in West Texas Oilfields

Blackstone Group LP will invest $1.5 billion in a pair of oil drilling deals in West Texas’ Permian Basin. The company is also providing $500 million to a group of oilmen, who will acquire an additional 16,000 acres in the region. The Permian Basin consists of 250 miles spanning West Texas and southeastern New Mexico.

Blackstone, and other investors, including EIG Global Energy Partners and Apollo Global Management LLC, are buying Permian producers’ discounted debts. The investors are taking advantage of the oil slump with the hope that, once oil and energy recover, profits will as well. Approximately half of the $25.5 billion paid so far this year for U.S. onshore drilling asset has been spent in the Permian Basin, according to RBC Capital Markets.

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