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Talos Energy sells off low carbon arm to TotalEnergies in $148M deal

M&A moves

Talos Energy announced that it has entered into an agreement for the sale of its wholly owned subsidiary Talos Low Carbon Solutions to TotalEnergies. Photo via Getty Images

A Houston-based company is divesting its low-carbon subsidiary to TotalEnergies, which has its United States headquarters in Houston.

Talos Energy announced that it has entered into an agreement for the sale of its wholly owned subsidiary Talos Low Carbon Solutions LLC to TotalEnergies. The deal is for a purchase price of $125 million plus customary reimbursements, adjustments and retention of cash, which totals approximately $148 million.

According to a news release, Talos plans to use the proceeds from the sale to repay borrowings under its credit facility and for general corporate purposes. The sale includes Talos's entire carbon capture and sequestration business, which includes its three projects along the U.S. Gulf Coast with Bayou Bend CCS, Harvest Bend CCS, and Coastal Bend CCS.

There is an opportunity for additional future cash payments upon achievement of certain milestones at the Harvest Bend or Coastal Bend projects for Talos. More payments can be obtained also upon a sale of the aforementioned projects by TotalEnergies.

"Since TLCS's inception, we have successfully applied our energy expertise as an early mover aimed at developing decarbonization solutions along the U.S. Gulf Coast,” Talos President and CEO Timothy S. Duncan says in a news release. ”Strong market interest during our capital raise provided the strategic option to fully monetize the business to TotalEnergies, an established global leader in CCS development."

Talos Executive Vice President, Low Carbon Strategy and Chief Sustainability Officer Robin Fielder will continue to serve in her role for a transition period before leaving Talos.

"Robin and our entire CCS team did an outstanding job crystallizing value for Talos shareholders for a strong financial return," Duncan continues. "The transaction will further enable Talos to prioritize cash flow generation and optimal capital allocation in our core Upstream business. We are also continuing to explore business development and strategic M&A opportunities."

TotalEnergies is active in the Houston energy transition ecosystem and recently signed on as a partner at Greentown Houston. Last fall, the company also started commercial operations of its new solar farm, Myrtle Solar, just south of Houston.

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Talos, a technology-based energy company that aims to work towards low-carbon solutions, acquired QuarterNorth Energy Inc. Photo via talosenergy.com

Houston energy company makes strategic acquisition in $1.29B deal

M&A moves

Houston-based Talos Energy Inc. announced a $1.29 billion acquisition this month.

Talos, a technology-based energy company that aims to work towards low-carbon solutions, acquired QuarterNorth Energy Inc., which has ownership in several big offshore fields, and is a privately-held U.S. Gulf of Mexico exploration and production company. The acquisition of the assets are expected to provide additional scale from high quality deepwater assets “with a favorable base decline profile along with attractive future development opportunities” from QuarterNorth.

QuarterNorth's assets include six major fields and are 95 percent operated and 95 percent in deepwater. The deal will add production of around 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day expected for 2024, which will average 75 percent oil.Talos will now expect run-rate synergies of about $50 million a year to be by end of 2024.

QuarterNorth's assets will bring ”significant reserves upside beyond current production from both producing probable zones and near-term development opportunities in 2024 and 2025” according to Talos.

“The addition of QuarterNorth's overlapping deepwater portfolio with valuable operated infrastructure will increase Talos's operational breadth and production profile while enhancing our margins and cash flow,” Talos President and CEO Timothy S. Duncan says in a news release. “This transaction aligns with Talos's overall strategy of leveraging existing infrastructure and complementary acreage to accelerate shareholder value creation. The pro forma footprint in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico should allow us to capture meaningful operating synergies.”

Talos secured $650 million in bridge financing from a syndicate of banks representing the majority sum of the company's reserves-based loan lender group.

“The expected financing structure of the transaction accelerates de-leveraging, immediately improves our credit profile, is accretive on key metrics, and positions us to consider additional capital return initiatives following deleveraging in the near term,” Duncan adds. “We look forward to completing this transaction in the next few months and continuing our strategy of building a large-scale, diverse energy company."

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Houston energy-focused AI platform raises $5M in Mercury-led seed round

fresh funding

Houston-based Collide, a provider of generative artificial intelligence for the energy sector, has raised $5 million in seed funding led by Houston’s Mercury Fund.

Other investors in the seed round include Bryan Sheffield, founder of Austin-based Parsley Energy, which was acquired by Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources in 2021; Billy Quinn, founder and managing partner of Dallas-based private equity firm Pearl Energy Investments; and David Albin, co-founder and former managing partner of Dallas-based private equity firm NGP Capital Partners.

“(Collide) co-founders Collin McLelland and Chuck Yates bring a unique understanding of the oil and gas industry,” Blair Garrou, managing partner at Mercury, said in a news release. “Their backgrounds, combined with Collide’s proprietary knowledge base, create a significant and strategic moat for the platform.”

Collide, founded in 2022, says the funding will enable the company to accelerate the development of its GenAI platform. GenAI creates digital content such as images, videos, text, and music.

Originally launched by Houston media organization Digital Wildcatters as “a professional network and digital community for technical discussions and knowledge sharing,” the company says it will now shift its focus to rolling out its enterprise-level, AI-enabled solution.

Collide explains that its platform gathers and synthesizes data from trusted sources to deliver industry insights for oil and gas professionals. Unlike platforms such as OpenAI, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot, Collide’s platform “uniquely accesses a comprehensive, industry-specific knowledge base, including technical papers, internal processes, and a curated Q&A database tailored to energy professionals,” the company said.

Collide says its approximately 6,000 platform users span 122 countries.

CenterPoint reports progress on grid improvements ahead of 2025 hurricane season

grid resilience

As part of an ongoing process to make Houston better prepared for climate disasters, CenterPoint Energy announced its latest progress update on the second phase of the Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI).

CenterPoint reported that it has completed 70 percent of its resiliency work and all GHRI-related actions are expected to be complete before the official start of the 2025 hurricane season.

"Our entire CenterPoint Houston Electric team is focused on completing this historic suite of grid resiliency actions before the start of hurricane season,” Darin Carroll, Senior Vice President of CenterPoint's Electric Business, said in a news release. “That is our goal, and we will achieve it. To date, we have made significant progress as part of this historic effort.”

CenterPoint’s resiliency solutions include clearing higher-risk vegetation across thousands of miles of power lines, adding thousands more automation devices capable of self-healing, installing thousands of storm-resistant poles, and undergrounding hundreds of miles of power lines.

CenterPoint's GHRI efforts, which entered a second phase in September 2024, aim to improve overall grid resiliency and reliability and are estimated to reduce outages for customers by more than 125 million minutes annually, according to the company. It has undergrounded nearly 350 miles of power lines, about 85 percent of the way toward its target of 400 miles, which will help improve resiliency and reduce the risk of outages. CenterPoint also aims to install the first of 100 new local weather monitoring stations by June 1.

In March, CenterPoint cleared 655 miles of high-risk vegetation near power lines, installed 1,215 automated reliability devices capable of self-healing, and added an additional 3,300 storm-resilient poles.

In April, CenterPoint will begin building a network of 100 new weather monitoring stations, which will provide 24/7 weather monitoring and storm response preparation.

“We will continue to work every day to complete these critical improvements as part of our company's goal of building the most resilient coastal grid in the country,” Carroll added in the release.

ExxonMobil, Rice launch sustainability initiative with first project underway

power partners

Houston-based ExxonMobil and Rice University announced a master research agreement this week to collaborate on research initiatives on sustainable energy efforts and solutions. The agreement includes one project that’s underway and more that are expected to launch this year.

“Our commitment to science and engineering, combined with Rice’s exceptional resources for research and innovation, will drive solutions to help meet growing energy demand,” Mike Zamora, president of ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Co., said in a news release. “We’re thrilled to work together with Rice.”

Rice and Exxon will aim to develop “systematic and comprehensive solutions” to support the global energy transition, according to Rice. The university will pull from the university’s prowess in materials science, polymers and catalysts, high-performance computing and applied mathematics.

“Our agreement with ExxonMobil highlights Rice’s ability to bring together diverse expertise to create lasting solutions,” Ramamoorthy Ramesh, executive vice president for research at Rice, said in the release. “This collaboration allows us to tackle key challenges in energy, water and resource sustainability by harnessing the power of an interdisciplinary systems approach.”

The first research project under the agreement focuses on developing advanced technologies to treat desalinated produced water from oil and gas operations for potential reuse. It's being led by Qilin Li, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice and co-director of the Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) Center.

Li’s research employs electrochemical advanced oxidation processes to remove harmful organic compounds and ammonia-nitrogen, aiming to make the water safe for applications such as agriculture, wildlife and industrial processes. Additionally, the project explores recovering ammonia and producing hydrogen, contributing to sustainable resource management.

Additional projects under the agreement with Exxon are set to launch in the coming months and years, according to Rice.

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