Vital Energy Inc., an Oklahoma-based crude oil and natural gas exploration and production (E&P) company, recently closed on about $1.2 billion of Permian Basin asset acquisitions and associated financing transactions, materially increasing its scale. In addition, the company has cash held to repay its $456 million (outstanding) of 9.5% senior unsecured notes due in 2025, which satisfies the requirements to avoid the springing maturity of its reserve-based lending (RBL) credit facility. As a result, we affirmed our 'B' issuer credit and issue-level ratings on Vital and removed them from CreditWatch, where they were placed with negative implications on Sept. 1, 2023. The outlook is positive, reflecting Vital's increased scale and our expectation that credit measures will strengthen, supported by positive
