Weather temps in El Paso, Texas, today are expected to breach the 103° mark. Nothing out of the ordinary here when summer says “howdy” to West Texas and her Permian oilfields. El Paso is where billionaire oil tycoon Paul Foster lays his head at night. He was born here after all, and today the sprawling city is marked with his name on two college campuses, a downtown building, and a boutique hotel. From roughneck to refiner to oil and gas producer and investor, Foster has continued to demonstrate a Midas touch. And now the Permian E&P he co-founded just six years ago is looking like a cool dip in the pool for Delaware buyers.

Reese Energy Consulting today is following the latest news on Denver-based Franklin Mountain Energy (FME), one of the largest privately held oil and gas producers in the N.M. Delaware. Following the 2017 sale of his El Paso-based Western Refinery for $5.8 billion, Foster—the founder and CEO of Franklin Mountain Investments—took only a hot minute before launching FME along with six partners in 2018. This time, diving back into the oil and gas biz as a self-funded E&P for the first 33 months with a decided mantra to not go public or invite outside investors. Instead, FME was all about finding the right asset and taking it from there. And, boy, did they find it.

The newcomer to the Delaware—which no one had ever heard of—gobbled up 4,041 Delaware acres at a 2018 BLM auction. Two weeks later, FME acquired OneEnergy Partners LLC, adding another 4,280 net acres. What began with production of 50 BOED at a then-$38 per barrel has now become 50 MBOED. The Midas Touch Man whose name is firmly etched in El Paso is now hardly a secret behind Franklin Mountain Energy—said to be among the latest Permian acquisition targets and a fine fetch in the $3 billion range. Sweet dreams, Mr. Foster.