Yates Petroleum: A rare glimpse into a privately held New Mexico energy giant

If you're looking for a story about the evolution of the oil and gas industry in the U.S., there's hardly a more interesting one than that of the Yates family. Privately held Yates Petroleum Corp. has headquarters in the southeastern New Mexico town of Artesia. One New York Times article from 2004 famously described a battle between Yates and then-Gov. Bill Richardson. In recent years the company has garnered more headlines, including reportedly looking at acquisition offers in 2012 before...