Tapstone is led by former Sandridge Energy chief executive Tom Ward, who founded the company after being pushed out of Sandridge by activist investors.
The Anglo-Dutch supermajor had been marketing its roughly 600,000-acre Mississippi Lime position as part of an effort to stem the losses in its underperforming North American tight oil portfolio.
Shell has already sold out of the Utica and Sandwash Niobrara plays and continues to market its position in the Eagle Ford Shale in south Texas.
The
