A month and pocket change into his new position as president and CEO of Okla. City-based Gulfport Energy, Nick Dell’Osso is once again showing his stripes as a shrewd decision maker and strategic growth leader. In a follow-up to our story late May when Dell’Osso took the captain’s seat at Gulfport, Reese Energy Consulting today spotlights this natural gas rainmaker fresh at the helm of Gulfport who’s wasting no time to seize the kind of opportunities he’s known for.

Call it kismet, serendipity, or perfect timing, Dell’Osso in February left his CEO role at Expand Energy, an REC client, following a board decision to relocate the company and high-level executives from Okla. City to Houston. A few weeks later, Okla. City-based Gulfport Energy’s CEO abruptly resigned, leaving the company uncertain of its future as an independent natural gas producer. Dell’Osso needed a new landing. Gulfport needed a rainmaker.  

Yes, worlds can collide and by the end of May, Dell’Osso landed where he’s starting a new chapter of his career with Gulfport. He brought with him his bona fides as The Dude who rolled the dice and won with a $7.4 billion merger in 2024 between then-Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy, becoming the nation’s largest natural gas producer now known as Expand Energy. He’s also declared a giddyup to grow Gulfport, which operates 262,000 net reservoir acres in the core of the Utica shale and Marcellus and 73,000 net acres in the Anadarko SCOOP, with a bolt-on acquisition in the eastern Ohio’s liquids-rich Utica wet gas window. The $83 million deal via a lease sale includes 4,700 net undeveloped acres in Belmont, Ohio. A hefty 80% of the company’s total production is generated from its Appalachia assets.