Mr. Darden is a veteran industry executive with over 40 years experience leading oil and gas exploration, development, operations, and midstream ventures, many of which were pioneering in the unconventional space.
For 38 years, Mr. Darden served Mercury Exploration Company and its successor, Quicksilver Resources, in various leadership capacities. Under his executive management from 1975 until 2008 and chairmanship from 1999 until 2013, Mercury Exploration Company grew from a small private venture with 8 employees to a public company listed on the NYSE under the name Quicksilver Resources (NYSE:KWK). At its peak, Quicksilver had a market capitalization of nearly $7.5 billion, over 600 employees, and 1.2 million acres for development of unconventional resources in the U.S. and Canada.
Mr. Darden also led Quicksilver Gas Services as its President and CEO from its IPO in August 2007 through its sale in October 2010 to Crestwood Midstream Services for $1 billion. During that time, Quicksilver Gas Services grew its assets by 50% and increased its quarterly distributions over 30%.
During this time, Mr. Darden had direct management oversight over the drilling, completion, and operation of over 6,400 producing wells and related infrastructure. Mr. Darden also led the design, building, and operation of over 3,200 miles of high-pressure and low-pressure pipelines, 375,000 horsepower of natural gas compression, 400 MMcfpd of cryogenic NGL processing plants, and over 275 MMcfpd of CO2 and H2S treating facilities. His experience spanned a wide array of basins and geographic regions, including Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana in the U.S. and Alberta and British Columbia in Canada.
After retiring from Quicksilver Resources in 2013, Mr. Darden has gone on to found various private ventures, including Darden Energy Group, a private family investment vehicle to develop energy projects; Global Shale Partners to pursue energy related opportunities in North America with partners from Japan and other Asian countries; Wolfcamp Water Partners to design, develop and operate a high volume, brackish water supply and pipeline system to provide “door-to-door” service to oil and gas producers in West Texas; and Vermilion Cliffs Partners, which owns properties producing 1,500 boepd from 30,000 acres of leasehold, with related midstream infrastructure, in the Midland and Delaware Basins of West Texas.
Mr. Darden holds board affiliations with the U.S. Potential Gas Committee, the McGuire Energy Institute, the SMU Cox School of Business, the TCU Neeley School of Business, the Borderlands Research Institute, and the Fort Worth Sportsmen’s Club.
Mr. Darden is a graduate of Tulane University, from which he holds a BA in economics.