If you were a human little kid “back in the day,” there was no better snack than Cracker Jacks. Aside from its caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts, every box contained a prize. For Midland, Texas-based Permian Resources (PR), this year’s 1Q offered up the company’s latest batch of popcorn and peanut goodness in the form of Permian hydrocarbons, along with a prize in the form of a strategic acquisition that adds to their envious Delaware position.

Reese Energy Consulting today is following the latest from Permian Resources and its crackerjack team led by the basin’s youngest co-CEOs, Will Hickey and James Walter. High school friends and football buddies, this dynamic duo launched PR in 2022 with a $7 billion merger of their Colgate Energy followed by a $4.5 billion acquisition of Earthstone Energy.

Now, the Permian’s second-largest pure player operating 450,000 net acres and 88,000 net royalty acres primarily in the Come-to-Daddy Delaware, Permian Resources in 1Q reported crude oil and total production of 175 MBPD and 373.2 MBOED. Natural gas and NGL volumes outperformed at 673,388 MCFD and 86 BPD, respectively. PR also announced it’s in downturn strategy mode to maintain a rock-solid balance sheet, leverage cost leadership, and invest opportunistically. The latter, a surprise prize with PR’s acquisition of APA Corp’s assets in the northern Delaware, N.M. The $608 million bolt-on deal includes 13,320 net acres and 8,700 net royalty acres in N.M., expected to average 12,400 BOED this year.

Now go buy some Cracker Jacks.