Austin T.
Lee

Austin Lee is a partner in the firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions Group. He represents and counsels clients in the acquisition and divestiture of oil and gas properties, as well as a broad range of transactional, joint venture and operational matters in the energy space. His experience includes providing advice to energy clients dealing with distressed situations, whether in the form of restructuring financial arrangements or acquiring or divesting properties. Austin frequently represents clients on a variety of midstream and downstream energy projects, produced water and saltwater disposal projects, and projects for gas storage and related energy storage facilities.

Austin has experience working in-house as upstream legal counsel at an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company focused on domestic shale production, as well as experience working with a major exploration and production company through a secondment in one of its onshore focused business units. Prior to entering legal practice, Austin worked as an Independent Petroleum Landman and as a Certified Public Accountant.

Austin brings more than 15 years of energy transactional experience across virtually every major domestic basin, including the Permian, Eagle Ford, Haynesville, Bakken, Fayetteville, Marcellus, Utica, Anadarko/SCOOP/STACK, DJ Basin, and Alaska. His clients include major public E&P companies, large private operators, private equity funds and their portfolio companies, midstream companies, financial institutions, and energy infrastructure developers.

Austin has been recognized by various legal directories including Chambers USA for Nationwide Energy: Oil & Gas (Transactional) (2021-2025), Chambers Global for Energy: Oil & Gas (Transactional) (2022–2026), and The Legal 500 for Energy Transactions: Oil and Gas (2023-2025) and Houston Elite: Energy Transactions (2025). He was also recognized by The Best Lawyers in America for Oil and Gas Law (2021-2026) and Lawdragon as one of the 2024 “500 Leading Dealmakers in America – Corporate & Securities and Private Equity, Especially Energy.” In 2018, Austin was one of only five lawyers named by Law360 as an Energy Rising Star, which recognizes lawyers nationwide that are under 40 years of age for accomplishments in the energy space, and one of Hart Energy’s Oil and Gas Investor Forty Under 40.

Austin’s representations have included:

Mergers, Acquisitions and Joint Ventures

• A private equity portfolio company in an equity-level exit transaction for the sale of its South Texas/Eagle Ford/San Miguel position for total consideration of approximately $841 million
• A private equity portfolio company in back-to-back acquisitions from a private equity portfolio company of certain non-operated interests in the Permian Basin for total consideration of approximately $348 million
• A publicly-traded E&P company in the acquisition of certain producing operated properties in the Permian Basin for total consideration of approximately $165 million from a private equity backed portfolio company
• A publicly-traded mineral company in the acquisition of certain mineral interests in the Permian Basin for total consideration of approximately $38 million from a family limited partnership
• A publicly-traded E&P company in the sale of certain producing operated properties in the Permian Basin for total consideration of approximately $185 million
• Apache Corporation and certain of its affiliates in the sale of certain unconventional producing assets in the state of New Mexico to an undisclosed buyer for total consideration of approximately $608 million
• Apache Corporation and related affiliates in the divestment of legacy properties in the Permian Basin to an undisclosed buyer for approximately $950 million
• A large independent E&P company in the acquisition of certain properties in the North Slope of Alaska pursuant to a negotiated process and through the exercise of certain preferential purchase rights for a total purchase price of above $200 million
• A publicly-traded E&P in the acquisition of producing properties from two separate private sellers for consideration of approximately $255 million consisting of cash and an option to deliver a portion in Up-C Units convertible into publicly traded stock
• Pioneer Natural Resources Company in the sale of approximately 20,000 net acres in western Glasscock County to Laredo Petroleum for a combination of cash and LPI common stock with a value of approximately $230 million
• An entity affiliated with GeoSouthern Energy in an upstream joint venture with a subsidiary of The Williams Companies for the acquisition of an interest in and development of Williams’ South Mansfield Assets in the Haynesville Shale
• GEP Haynesville in an Asset Swap with Vine Oil and Gas whereby the parties exchanged approximately non-operated working interests in the majority of Vine’s and GEP’s joint venture assets located in Red River, DeSoto and Sabine parishes in Northwest Louisiana
• Parsley Energy in the acquisition of certain entities holding undeveloped acreage and producing oil and gas properties containing approximately 71,000 net acres in the core of the Midland Basin from Double Eagle Energy Permian and certain of its affiliates for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $2.8 billion, consisting of approximately $1.4 billion in cash and approximately 39.8 million units of Parsley Energy
• American Resource Development (Ameredev) in its sale of undeveloped acreage and producing oil and gas properties in the Delaware Basin for a total consideration of $615 million in cash to Callon Petroleum Operating Company
• Castleton Commodities International in its acquisition of more than 160,000 net acres of leasehold and Carthage midstream assets in East Texas from subsidiaries of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation for over $1 billion
• SWEPI LP (a unit of Royal Dutch Shell plc) in the $1.9 billion acquisition of approximately 618,000 net acres in the Permian Basin
• Kinder Morgan in connection with the $7.15 billion sale of El Paso's exploration and production business unit
• Apache Corporation in the $7 billion acquisition of BP's oil and gas operations, acreage and infrastructure in the Permian Basin, Egypt's Western Desert, and western Canada

Midstream and Energy Infrastructure

• A publicly-traded E&P company in negotiating agreements for a gas volume commitment with a large Permian-focused midstream company, including a contractual net profits interest arrangement with respect to an individual pipeline of that midstream company and related interim service and NAESB buy-sell agreements
• A publicly-traded E&P company in negotiating agreements for a gas volume commitment to receive intrastate and 311 service to transport 150,000 MMBtu of Gas per Day across 5 different pipelines owned by affiliates of Energy Transfer for a 10-year term
• A subsidiary of DT Midstream in the negotiation of an anchor shipper arrangement with a large publicly traded E&P Operator for the buildout of a gathering system in the Utica Shale
• A private oil & gas operator in the negotiation of a gas gathering agreement covering its entire acreage position in East Texas in order to provide it with access to multiple downstream markets
• Halcón Resources Corporation in a $325 million divestiture of all water infrastructure assets across the Delaware Basin to a subsidiary of WaterBridge Resources

Drillco Transactions

• Pioneer Natural Resources Company in a DrillCo transaction with a private investor providing for drilling opportunities on acreage owned by Pioneer in South Texas
• A large publicly traded utility company in a DrillCo transaction whereby the client provided DrillCo financing of approximately $50,000,000 to an upstream operator in exchange for a large acreage dedication and exclusive right to provide midstream services across 180,000 acres and an 80% working interest in each drilled unit
• A private oil and gas operator in connection with the formation of a series of equity-level drilling joint ventures structured to deliver a variety of DrillCo-style investment options to investors, raising over $50 million in development capital

Distressed Energy / Bankruptcy

• Ameredev, Texas in its acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Lilis Energy and its affiliates for $46.6 million as part of a Chapter 11 sales process
• Natixis, New York Branch in its capacity as administrative agent of a first lien credit facility with MDC Texas Operator in connection with the MTE Holdings bankruptcy, including the negotiation of the sale of certain assets of the debtors and other strategic alternatives
• Echo Energy Partners I in the sale of substantially all of its SCOOP/Stack assets to a special purpose vehicle funded by HPS Investment Partners for approximately $32.96 million out of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case