Matador Resources Co. (NYSE: MTDR) is targeting a new Delaware Basin position in Lea County, N.M., expanding acreage there and in other areas with $111 million in deals from January through late February, the company said in March.

The company bolted on 8,200 net acres overall, including leasehold in a new Lea project area called Antelope Ridge, also known as the Red Hills area. Matador also added acreage in Rustler Breaks in southern Eddy County, N.M.

The company estimates the Antelope Ridge area’s inventory of gross locations at 486, with nearly 70% of them operated.

Compared with other Delaware deals, Matador picked up the acreage at a song—paying about $9,000 per acre in an area that routinely averages triple that amount.

Joseph Wm. Foran, Matador’s chairman and CEO, said during an analyst day presentation March 23 that despite the acquisitions in the south, the north continues to be a compelling story and may soon alter A&D in the basin.

“I think over this year, that’s one of the biggest changes you’ll see in our business, not just Matador’s but the whole industry,” Foran said. “It’s going to keep moving north. People are going to follow the Wolfcamp and the other zones in the Delaware farther north. You’re starting to see that already in our Airstrip wells.”

The company appears confident in its northern project areas, “highlighting prospectivity from the Bone Spring to deeper Wolfcamp benches,” said Scott Hanold, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. Recent results in its Mallon wells are about 20% more than the high end of its 700,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) expectations.

“We anticipate high rate-of-change potential in these areas, with an active development program across three formations,” Hanold said.

The company’s Airstrip #201H is believed to be the northernmost horizontal well test of the Wolfcamp A in the Delaware, he said. The well’s one-day IP rate produced 926boe/d, with volumes at 97% oil.

Foran noted that EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG), Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN) and Cimarex Energy Co. (NYSE: XEC) are starting to bring more life to the north.

“I think there will be more and more value attached [to the north] during the year,” Foran said.

Matthew Hairford, Matador’s president, said the company is sometimes asked why it’s now looking to the north of the basin.

“We’re kind of like, ‘shh.’ We’re happy with what we’re doing,” he said.

Matador has historically been ahead of other Delaware players in the past, initially picking up acreage when much of the industry’s focus was almost solely on the Midland Basin. The company’s total Permian leasehold includes more than 101,000 net leasehold and mineral acres, nearly all of it in the Delaware Basin.

Costs to obtain that acreage, Matador said, average $6,000 per acre.

The company has also successfully used assets to raise money, including its joint venture (JV) with San Mateo Midstream LLC, which generated $172 million in proceeds when it closed in March.

The company continues to see opportunities for bolt-ons in the crowded Delaware.

After 33 years as a landman, Foran said he knows “there’s always acreage out there. It depends on how much you’re willing to pay and how hard you’re willing to work.”

He noted that acreage purchases have been small in size, ranging from 500 to 1,000 acres. While it’s more challenging work, and some deals aren’t ideal, A&D is “out there if you’re actively working.”

The key has been the word of Matador’s landmen. Before going public, the company had limited money when it went to the Eagle Ford to make deals.

At that point, there was little point in going to courthouse auctions to outbid competitors.

Instead, Van H. Singleton II, executive vice president of land, chatted up ranchers in cafes and approached them directly about leases.

The approach helped build Matador a 30,000-acre position in the Eagle Ford.

“When things got hot in the Permian, Van [Singleton] bought an RV and he drove out to the courthouse and parked it. He did everything but stand on a corner with a sign and say, ‘we’ll buy leases.’”

Matador also retains strong local relationships, executing multiple deals—more than a dozen—with a single family.

For 2017, much of the of the company’s $410 million drilling and completions capex (at the midpoint) is set to go to the Delaware, while the Eagle Ford and Haynesville combine for 9%.

Asked by an analyst whether the Eagle Ford and Haynesville might be divested, Foran said Matador has had strong assets in both plays.

However, “people sometimes, I think, are looking for a bargain,” he said, noting that a strong balance sheet has allowed the company to not sell at a basement price. To begin 2017, the company had $213 million in cash before proceeds from its midstream JV. The company has about $1 billion in liquidity.

The company has also maintained that if the Eagle Ford and Haynesville are strategic to a company, they welcome an offer.

But hanging onto both plays has turned out to be fortuitous. The Eagle Ford, with EOG’s completion techniques giving the shale play a boost, have increased the assets’ value.

“The Haynesville—we’ve been pushed on that for a long time,” he said. But with gas at more than $3 per thousand cubic feet and new completion techniques, “it’s one of the hot plays.”

The danger with doing a deal at the bottom of the market is “you might hate yourself” later, Foran said. “There are companies that hate themselves for selling out of the Delaware and now, to get back in, they have to pay far more.”

Darren Barbee can be reached at dbarbee@hartenergy.com.