Pioneer Natural Resources Company, headquartered in Irving, Texas, was a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration. It operated in the Cline Shale, which is part of the Spraberry Trend of the Permian Basin, where the company was the largest acreage holder. In May 2024, the company was acquired by ExxonMobil. As of December 31, 2022, the company had 2.376 e9BOE of proved reserves, of which 41% was petroleum, 23% was natural gas liquids, and 28% was natural gas. In 2022, the company produced 649 e3BOE per day, of which 58% was petroleum, 23% was natural gas liquids, and 19% was natural gas.

History

Pioneer Natural Resources was created in 1997 by the merger of Parker & Parsley Petroleum Company and MESA Inc., owned by Thomas Boone Pickens. In May 2016, CEO and chairman Scott D. Sheffield was succeeded by Timothy Dove. Sheffield returned to the roles in 2019 after Dove's retirement. In January 2024, Richard P. Dealy was named as CEO.

Divestitures and acquisitions

Examples of acquisitions by Pioneer include the 2004 acquisition of Evergreen Resources for $2.1 billion, the 2021 acquisitions of Parsley Energy for $4.5 billion and DoublePoint Energy for $6.4 billion, and the acquisition of Carmuse Industrial Sands in 2012 for $297 million.

Acquisition by ExxonMobil

In May 2024, in the largest merger in the petroleum industry in 20 years, Pioneer was acquired by ExxonMobil, making ExxonMobil the largest producer of shale gas in the Permian Basin. Approval for the transaction from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was accompanied by a consent order alleging that former Pioneer CEO Scott D. Sheffield colluded with OPEC to raise oil prices and making the merger conditional on Sheffield's being barred from joining ExxonMobil's board of directors or serving as an advisor to Exxon after the merger.

Antitrust lawsuit

In January 2024, a class action lawsuit was filed by drivers in three US states accusing Pioneer, along with seven other oil and gas producers, of an illegal price fixing scheme to constrain production of shale oil that led to American drivers paying more for gasoline than they would have in a competitive market. In May 2024, plaintiffs asked for the communications records of former CEO Scott Sheffield.