Laredo Energy received $130 million in private-equity commitments from Avista Capital Partners and Liberty Energy Holdings LLC, the company said May 28.

The equity will support the company’s drilling program, Laredo said, noting that it has drilled more than 200 natural gas wells in South Texas since 2001.

Laredo plans to expand its operations to include a new drilling program for the Eaglebine in East-Central Texas, the company said.

This year, the company plans to drill 25 wells from two running rigs, Laredo said. There is more than 300 billion cubic feet equivalent (Bcfe) in proved reserves, and more than 50 MMcfe/d in gross operated production, the company added.

Its assets include 62 operated, producing wells, more than 110,000 gross acres of operated leases and more than 31,000 acres holding nonoperated interests, Laredo said.

Its South Texas operations focus on Webb County, where 86 horizontal wells were drilled, the company said. Out of this amount, two were in the Austin Chalk, 27 were in the Eagle Ford, 43 were in the Escondido Formation, 13 were in the Olmos Formation and one was in the San Miguel Formation, Laredo said.

“We’re excited about adding new equity capital to continue our very successful natural gas horizontal drilling program in Webb County while we pursue a promising new area. Our goal is to take 13 years of success in multistacked gas reservoirs in South Texas and put that experience and knowledge to work in the Eaglebine oil play, where we have a 30,000-acre position that has similar multiple stacked pay attributes,” said Glenn Hart, president and CEO.

Houston-based Laredo Energy acquires and develops oil and natural gas in Texas.

Avista Capital Partners is a private-equity firm based in New York.

Liberty Energy Holdings LLC is managed by Old Ironsides Energy LLC, an oil and natural gas investment manager based in Boston.