april 28 reuters  us natural gas producer bkv corporation has begun preparations for an initial public offering ipo people familiar with the matter said making it the latest company in the sector to pursue such a move in the wake of soaring energy prices the company held meetings with investment banks in recent days to select underwriters for a listing which could happen later this year the sources said while the volatility in commodity prices makes its exact valuation uncertain bkv corp may be worth up to 2 billion including debt when it lists the sources added the sources cautioned that timing valuation and whether the ipo takes place at all were subject to market conditions and asked not to be identified to discuss private information based in denver colorado bkv corp is majority owned by thai energy firm banpu pcl banpubk and according to bkv corps website is a top 20 us natural gas producer and the largest in the barnett formation the area of north texas where the first shale wells were successfully drilled bkv corp did not respond to comment requests banpu could not be reached for comment outside normal business hours bkv corp would join other us energy firms preparing to debut on the stock market including ascent resources one of the largest privately held us natural gas producers and atlas sand in what may be the first us listing of an oilfield services company since 2018 reuters has previously reported read more formed in 2015 bkv corp acquired its barnett position from devon energy corp dvnn two years ago in a deal worth up to 750 million bkv corp holds 292600 net acres in the barnett and 36500 net acres in pennsylvanias marcellus shale in november the company expanded into power generation acquiring a natural gasfired power plant in texas for 430 million last week bkv corp announced it was creating a carbon capture utilization and storage unit reporting by david french in new york editing by alexandra hudson