Oil and Gas Investor Magazine - September 2015

Cover Story

Optimizing The Eagle Ford

Operators in the Eagle Ford Shale, considered one of the top three shale oil plays, are slowing the pace to hone their margins.

Feature

A&D This Time

This downturn is proving not to be V-shaped after all. Here’s how buyers and sellers can make the best of it.

Beyond Proved

At today’s commodity prices, probable and possible reserves don’t make the cut. Instead, these characteristics help appraisers measure worth.

Conventionals: Reduce The Induced

If you’re evaluating conventional reservoirs, it’s critical to know how to cope with human error, stale assumptions and poor data.

Little Engines That Can

Now that small and mid-cap stocks are down, and down hard, analysts offer up names with staying power and upside potential.

Stress Signals

Deal flow and value have faltered along with oil prices. So far, most E&Ps have survived, with help from capital providers, hedges and a confident stock market.

The New Role Of Oil Prices

Credit Suisse analyst Jim Wicklund is still a bear, but he notes that oil prices have taken on a strange new dynamic.

Updated Reserves For The Utica Shale

The Ordovician Shale has distinctive thermal windows for oil to dry gas generation. The source rock in the basin is immature to the west, giving a distinctive oil window.

Waiting For Phase Two

Auctioneers and bidders in the most recent Mexican tender offer are taking stock after an ambivalent first phase.

A&D Trends

Shale's M&A Targets

Purely on an M&A upside basis, without considering asset quality and materiality, the stocks with greatest upside include Eclipse Resources Corp., Ultra Petroleum Corp. and Whiting Petroleum Corp.

At Closing

Points Of Hope

Oil is once again testing the bottom in the low $40s at press time, and industry attitude is in a funk. Is there hope for oil and gas producers and investors?

Bright Spots

Meet Brad Morse

Brad Morse serves on the board of Wapiti Oil & Gas, Crystal Equity Energy and San Pedro Development, having led the latter’s $80 million recapitalization.

Completions

Writedowns, Prices & Exports

IHS Herold said “gloomy” commodity prices had flushed out asset impairments in the first quarter that would continue into second-quarter results, setting a 10-year record for E&P reserve writedowns.

E&P Momentum

Orogrande Basin Update

Torchlight offers 168,000 contiguous acres in the heart of the Orogrande and has executed a five-year drilling lease with a second five-year option with the state of Texas University Land System.

From the Editor-in-Chief

Confessions Of A Shale Junkie

Knowing that investors were watching over my shoulder 24/7, I kept scouting out the next deal. To be sure, I was trying to balance those buying opportunities with my capex.

Legends

Chatting With Don Briggs

Don Briggs has owned several companies, including Dolphin Pipe Rental and Aztec Corp., but he sold some to Newpark Resources and realized others could run by themselves.

On the Money

Earnings Season In An Unforgiving Market

Fall short of production guidance, or outspend capex for a given growth target, and you risk sell-off. Deliver outsized growth without requisite returns, and you are compounding the macro problem.