May 6 (Reuters) - Western Midstream Partners ( WES )

said on Wednesday it would acquire privately held Brazos

Delaware II in a $1.6 billion deal, expanding its gathering and

processing footprint in the core of the Permian Basin.

The company will pay about $800 million in cash and issue

roughly $800 million in common units as part of the transaction,

which is expected to close in the second quarter.

Brazos, one of the largest privately held gathering and

processing platforms in the Texas Delaware Basin, has assets

across the oil-rich region.

The assets include about 900 miles of pipeline, 460 million

cubic feet per day of nameplate natural-gas processing capacity

at the Comanche processing complex.

(Reporting by Sumit Saha in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj

Kalluvila)