By Paul Wiseman
Cody Campbell
“We always either had success or we learned, but the key was that we kept going after each success and we kept going after each failure,” said Cody C. Campbell, one of two cofounders of Double Eagle Energy Holdings. “We’ll continue to have successes and we’ll continue to have failures and we’ll continue to grow and learn from both, so if we can continue to do that I think we’ll continue to do well.”
He and childhood buddy John A. Sellers began working together, first on real estate then on oil and gas deals, when they were at Texas Tech. They founded Double Eagle in 2008. The two are currently co-CEOs of Double Eagle Holdings III LLC, headquartered in Ft. Worth. Very active in the Permian, the company has an office in Midland.
Since then the partners have formed and sold several companies, operating across the Permian and in other areas including South Texas, Mid-Continent and the Rockies. They sold one Double Eagle operation to Parsley Energy in 2017 for $2.8 billion and another, named DoublePoint, to Pioneer in 2021.
That’s pretty amazing for two Canyon, Texas, boys, neither of whose families had anything to do with the oil and gas business.
They didn’t start in oil—it all began with a real estate transaction business—but the 2008 financial sector bust sent them scrambling to do something else. While at Tech they had met a number of students whose families were in oil and gas, and that sector intrigued them. That year they started Double Eagle, so naming it because they were both Canyon High Eagles. Of the name, Campbell says, “If we’d known we were going to be as successful as we’ve been, we probably would’ve come up with a better name.”
Of the almost accidental nature of their oil and gas startup, Campbell says, “We weren’t extremely intentional about getting into the oil and gas business, but it worked out well for us, so we’re extremely happy that we chose it. We’ve met a lot of great people and found that we were a pretty good fit for the oil patch.”
They began just trying to make ends meet, assembling lease positions to sell to operators, mostly in the Haynesville and Eagle Ford. It was very much touch-and-go for a while. “Over time we caught some traction and we made some money and added staff and grew the business,” Campbell recalled. They developed Double Eagle from an operating firm with significant land business into the multibillion dollar enterprise it became.
Apollo Four
Once they caught that traction, Campbell and Sellers were happy investing their own money and that of a small cadre of family and friends, making some good deals. After a while, however, the duo began dreaming of loftier heights.
Developing a relationship with Greg Beard, head of Natural Resources at an affiliate of private equity firm Apollo Global Management, opened an important door.
Said Campbell, “We had an idea to scale a non-op business in Oklahoma in the SCOOP play. So we talked to him about it and came to terms on an arrangement that would work for us operating our existing business while standing up a new one under the partnership with Apollo, so we did it.”
After selling the original non-op business in 2014, they started another partnership with Apollo, Double Eagle II. That’s the one they sold to Parsley in 2017.
Business success was great, but more important were the management lessons Apollo was teaching them. “They learned how to mature the organization as well as, “how to have orderly board meetings, to submit the audits, how to have a professional back office. That allowed us to scale and grow even more,” said Campbell.
Next, they formed Double Point with Apollo, which is what they sold to Pioneer in 2021. At that time, Campbell said, “It was running seven rigs in the Permian and producing 100,000 barrels per day.”
Overall they have sold four different partnerships with Apollo.
John A. Sellers
Now, said Sellers, the company is focusing on their minerals business, Tumbleweed Royalty, and on Blue Ridge, their produced water recycling business operated in partnership with several Midland Basin operators.
Soon they expect to be back in oil and gas operations, probably in the Midland or Delaware basin. Sellers said, “We’ve looked at other basins throughout North America, but we keep coming back to the Permian, and feel like that’s where it makes the most sense to operate.”
Recognizing that the Permian is where everyone wants to be, which makes finding value a challenge, Campbell admitted, “The secret’s out, it’s pretty good in the Permian.”
It’s All About the People
Working with people is a challenge, but the partners believe they’ve put together a system that has carried them through the last 14 years very well, with a clear eye to the future.
When asked about their biggest challenges, Campbell said, “Dealing with difficult people I think would be the number one thing. Usually when you’re talking about just a deal, a problem or whatever, you can kind of gather the facts and figure it out. But when you’re dealing with people, sometimes it’s more complicated than that.”
Sellers is quick to add, however, that it’s great people that make great companies. “Our success is not just because Cody and I are great at what we do. It’s definitely a team effort around here. We’ve been able to keep a really core group of men and women for a long time and I think that’s a little unusual in the oil and gas business. If anyone says what’s the secret, it is definitely the people that have been around us for the last decade plus.”
So, what is their secret to keeping great people? It’s all in the ears.
“The number one thing is listening to people and really hearing them and allowing them the freedom to disagree or agree,” said Sellers. “We don’t have anyone here who is afraid to question our decisions.” This does allow for some heated debates during the decision making process.
In fact, if everyone agrees, something is wrong, Sellers laughed.
The number two thing is to financially reward the team for a win. “Whenever the company’s successful, everybody here is successful and everybody makes money,” he said.
Influencers
The duo lists the late Ted Collins and the late Aubrey McClendon as their top two mentors.
President Donald Trump visited a Double Eagle drilling location July 29, 2020 in Midland, Texas.
MANDATORY CREDIT: The Oilfield Photographer, Inc.
Campbell said, “From Ted Collins it was all about being consistent in the word you give to people and building a reputation over the years of being a good partner and a good participant in the industry, and just the way he conducted himself and conducted business. [It was] something to be admired and something to be copied.”
The lessons from McClendon were mixed—some regarding what to do and others on the flip side. Of him Campbell noted, “Aubrey was probably the most unique person that either of us ever encountered.” McClendon’s energy level and relentlessness topped the list. “We learned a lot from his aggressiveness. We learned [to do] a lot of things the right way from him, and then we saw some mistakes that he made,” noting that in him they observed, “the good, the bad and the ugly.” Overall, “He was instrumental in helping us catch a gear and get our business going.”
Noting that they are only 40 and are not nearly finished in the oil and gas business, John Sellers and Cody Campbell have proven that they know how to assemble a quality team and to learn from all the good, the bad and the ugly the Patch has to offer.
Campbell sums it up thus: “We’ve met a lot of great people and found that we were a pretty good fit for the oil patch.”