With half a billion dollars to spend, ExL Petroleum Management LLC is planning some drilling and a little shopping in the Permian Basin.

The Midland, Texas, company’s management and global private equity firm Quantum Energy Partners have anted up capital commitments of more than $500 million in a partnership to acquire and develop in the basin, Quantum said Nov. 3.

ExL was founded in 2005 and has since acquired, developed and sold multiple Permian Basin asset packages for proceeds in excess of $1 billion at very attractive returns, Quantum said.

Doug Robison, ExL president, said the company has spent the past several months “clearing the deck” to begin afresh with Midland Basin horizontals. The company is also looking at the Delaware side of the Permian into Southeast New Mexico. And for the first time, the company is open to looking beyond the Permian as well.

“We have half a billion dollars in dry power to invest and prospect,” Robison told A-DCenter.com.

ExL was founded in 2005 and has since acquired, developed and sold multiple Permian Basin asset packages for proceeds in excess of $1 billion at very attractive returns.

ExL plans to grow through the drilling and operation of oil and gas wells in the Midland and Delaware basins, while making production acquisitions and enhancements along the way.

Prior to founding ExL, the company’s management partners—Robison, Dave Feavel and Mike LaMonica—each served as senior managers of Henry Petroleum, a successful Midland, Texas-based independent oil and gas company.

“It's no secret that the Permian Basin has been turned on its side with the surge of horizontal activity,” he said. “Quantum's level of capital commitment and financial expertise, coupled with ExL's operational excellence and history in the Permian Basin, will allow ExL to substantially grow its business and remain very competitive in the top oil and gas play in the world.”

Robison’s expertise lies in the areas of oil and gas law, transaction law and the negotiation of complex oil and gas projects. He negotiated the key leasehold positions of Henry Petroleum’s Wolfcamp play, resulting in the acquisition of 200,000 acres of leasehold and the subsequent drilling of 200 producing wells. Robison was at Henry Petroleum from 1996-2005.

In 2006, Concho Resources (NYSE: CXO) acquired Henry Petroleum and its affiliates for about $584 million.

Dheeraj Verma, managing director of Quantum, said the firm is partnering with an accomplished and entrepreneurial team.

“We share a common passion for the oil and gas business and a commitment to building successful companies in Midland,” he said. “This team has a relentless focus on superior execution, something that will serve them well as they partner with landowners and other companies to accelerate the horizontal redevelopment of the Permian Basin."

Founded in 1998, Quantum Energy Partners is a leading provider of private equity capital to the global energy industry and has managed, with its affiliates, more than $9 billion in equity commitments.

Quantum targets private equity investment opportunities ranging from $200 million to $2 billion in enterprise value per transaction.

In August, for instance, Quantum and Tug Hill Inc. formed THQ, a partnership to acquire, develop and explore conventional and unconventional oil and gas assets in North American basins. The partnership is supported by an initial $450 million equity commitment from Quantum and Tug Hill.

Tug Hill has participated in more than 750 Marcellus Shale wells and plans to continue to participate in the drilling and development of its Marcellus assets. Tug Hill will manage its existing Marcellus and legacy properties outside of the partnership.