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M&A Transitions

Overview

Multiple acquisitions and divestitures across 11 years in the same basin. Each one requires a full infrastructure cutover — IT, OT, telecommunications, and SCADA — on compressed timelines that don't care about technical complexity.

What a Transition Involves

Pre-Close

  • Inventory — every asset: network devices, SCADA hosts, radio links, circuits, IP space, DNS, licensing
  • Architecture review — document current state, identify dependencies, flag single points of failure
  • Cutover planning — which systems move, which stay, what needs to be rebuilt from scratch
  • Vendor coordination — circuit transfers, license reassignment, support contract handoffs

Cutover Period

  • Network redesign — new IP addressing, new VLANs, new routing, often new hardware
  • SCADA conversion — migrating RTUs, reconfiguring polling, updating HMI displays, cutting over historians
  • Telecommunications — circuit orders, radio reconfigurations, phone system migration
  • Active Directory / authentication — domain migrations, user account transitions, permission restructuring
  • Parallel operation — old and new systems running simultaneously during transition, with controlled switchover

Post-Close

  • Validation — every wellpad polled, every alarm tested, every link verified
  • Decommissioning — removing old infrastructure, returning leased equipment, closing out circuits
  • Documentation — as-built drawings updated, IP spreadsheets current, SCADA database verified

Operators Supported

Basin operations have involved assets from:

  • ExxonMobil / XTO Energy
  • Encana (now Ovintiv)
  • Marathon Oil
  • BRE (Bill Barrett)
  • Caerus Oil and Gas
  • Oxy (Occidental Petroleum)
  • Anadarko (now Occidental)

Each operator has different standards, different vendors, different naming conventions, different SCADA platforms. Transitioning between them means adapting to a new set of requirements while maintaining production continuity.

Lessons from Compressed Timelines

  1. Document everything before the transition starts. You won't have time during. The asset inventory you build in the first week determines whether the cutover takes 30 days or 90.

  2. Prioritize production-critical systems. SCADA and safety systems cut over first. Email can wait. The business runs on wellpad data, not PowerPoint.

  3. Plan for the things you can't plan for. Legacy systems that nobody documented. Circuits that were ordered by someone who left three years ago. Radio links that work but nobody knows the configuration. They're always there.

  4. Test the rollback. Every cutover step should have a defined path back to the previous state. If you can't articulate the rollback before you start, you're not ready.

  5. Communicate relentlessly. Field operators, control room staff, management, and IT all need to know what's changing, when, and what to do if something breaks. Surprises during a cutover become incidents.